Feldon SmokeJumper has assured players in a thread “Where did my adventure go?!” that not only does EQ2 have a long-term plan besides the standard game updates and expansions, but that much will be revealed soon. If you have taken for granted that next year’s expansion will be Velious Part 2, raising the level cap to 100, you may want to read on!
Watch this space. I’ll be posting stuff soon to describe this year’s slate. Probably next week sometime, maybe the week after. We’re going to be doing some VERY cool stuff this year and I think you’ll start to see more and more of the kinds of things you mention here.
We’re already one of the best. Now it’s time to get unique.
and:
We’ll be posting next year’s slate of coming attractions soon.
Considering the extremely tight leash that Marketing and PR have kept the EQ2 team on in the recent past, it just seems unlikely that all the permissions have been acquired to tell us what’s coming more than a few months out. We’ve never gotten information that far in advance (except Fan Faire), so consider us skeptical.
Players have been posting some great feedback. SmokeJumper took the time to respond to some of it:
“Class distinction is turning to mud.” – Notso
We actually agree with that. We have lots of great ideas about how the classes could be changed to make them a lot more fun to play, but I freely admit that we feel like the players playing currently wouldn’t really care for a shakeup of their classes like that. Maybe it’s something we should have a round robin about at Fan Faire and talk about publicly so we get fan reaction in real time. It’s a gigantic fundamental change for the game because it touches the heart of each and every player that built their character to be the way it is for good reasons. Definitely do-able (although it’s a large job), but we need to hear strong support from players before we’d make a move like this.
Okay. It’s been a while since we talked about this internally. I’ll bring it up with the team soon and discuss. Thanks for the prodding.
“AA is the new level. EQ1 got this way and that is when I left. I wish they would do away with one or the other.” – Notso
This is probably something EQ Next might consider, but removing levels from EQII is an even more fundamnetal change and unlikely to ever occur. Conversely, just using levels instead of AA doesn’t really have the same effect. For example, because only AA were raised in DoV, you never outlevel any of the content. There may come a time when the loot you gain somewhat trivalizes early content, but you never grey-out or green-out previous content. In that way, AA raises are nicely attractive.
Certainly, level 100 beckons to us all, but not yet, and not for a while.
“To max AA’s as soon as possible you need to turn off exp and do every quest you can find while leveling up (ed: thus removing any possible alternate exploration path for any alts thereafter.)” – NotsoAnother good point. We’ve talked around this point a lot, but I haven’t heard it phrased exactly that way. I scribbled down a note for discussion. It’s certainly rehashing old ground, but things change. We’ll see. Thanks.
More as we have it…
Carrot and donkey tactics. Keep trying guys.
Its interesting to hear his thoughts on the class distinction, since its something that I think previous designers/producers have neglected or allowed to blur for short term gains (some decisions made make me wonder if they were already planning to leave…).
Definitely tough to fix, but its also something that gotten right gives the biggest benefits to the game for the least design effort.
Its one thing where I think WoW’s cataclysm has my respect in that they had the balls to make some big changes, I do not agree with all of them. It does seem (at least in my little world 😉 ) that the bad feedback from there has come from the simplifying, perhaps that has gone too far and is recognised as such.
Either way since seeing the sort of game with DoV that Smokejumper has influenced I’m looking forward to seeing what he creates.
Everything has boiled down to 4 archetypes ON HIS WATCH. Now he says he’s going to fix it. Erm…
I don’t see how anyone can say it’s basically four archetypes. Maybe Brawlers need more to differentiate the subclasses, and maybe the Sorcerers have kinda grown together, but you’re crazy if you think an Inquisitor is too much like a Templar. Or a Guardian is too much like a Shadowknight. Or a Troubador is too much like an Assassin.
4 Archetypes?
Defensive Tank, Casting Healer, DPS Scout, and Pew Pew Mage.
Everyone in each class wears the same gear and undertakes only that role because of terrible AA abilities and the total lack of any gear to successfully support an ‘alternative’ (as of this expansion) playstyle.
An Inquistor IS like a Templar because a Melee/DPS healer isn’t supported in DoV or a Troubadour is searching for COMPLETELY the same items to play essentially the same role as the Assassin. Same with Guardians and Shadowknights exactly the same gear for the same role – Defensive tank.
All as Feldon stated – ON HIS WATCH.
Plan? What plan? Other than cashing the paychecks until they no longer have jobs at the S-O-E.
WTB devs that care, PST.
There hasn’t been a Sr Producer at EQ2 who cared since Scott Hartsman left. I still remember submitting a ticket one night to have a character restored, and a 90 Swashy popped up next to my toon in the Baubbleshire and started asking me questions…it ended up being Scott (The Sr Rpoducer at the time) popping in to let me know that he was restoring my toon and asked if there was anything else he could do for me. He ended up restoring the toon, and switching the name to that toon from another of mine. The current Sr Producer, SmokeJumper is too busy watching the $$$ ticking from the Marketplace to give two farts whether anything in EQ2 (other than MP fluff items) are making anyone happy and he would likely have made me buy a name change…and probably even a character transfer fee to restore my toon. Oh how I miss the EQ2 of old…when it seemed like the “improvements” were actually for the game, and not SmokeJumper’s pocketbook.