Feldon The Q&As and Panels are done, and it’s time to decompress in the Main Hall, or a hallway, or even “Kelethin”, a bar in Paris Hotel covered by faux trees. But that doesn’t mean the Questions & Answers have stopped. If you read our Fan Faire coverage and thirst for more, or if you posted a question to our Submit Your EQ2 Fan Faire Questions post, continue on.
So without further ado…
After the Q&A — More Q&A
Q: Is there a revamp for the graphics engine currently in the works? Any plans on upgrading the game engine? Right now it’s a struggle to run maxed out on super fast pcs. Would be great to see multicore cpu support properly implemented not the current minor one.
A: As far as multicore support in the client, Alex is working on that next. What’s currently happening is the game updates the frame, sends all the data it needs to the graphics card, then the CPU has to wait for the graphics card to finish the frame before it can proceed. We’re going to move graphics updates to a thread on the second core so the game can be working on building the next frame while the graphics card is busy. (Alex “GermInUSA” — new EQ2 graphics guy)
Q: Can we either have multi-subscriptions per account, or the ability to link multiple accounts to the same character pool?
A: We can’t report any movement on linking accounts. We want to do it. (SmokeJumper)
Q: Can we have a way to copy friends and ignore lists as well as macros between characters on our accounts?
A: We added /load_friends and /save_friends on June 18th. (Zoltaroth)
Q: Troublemaker players can just change their name and get around my ignore list. Can we get an account ignore?
A: The problem is this would require a change to uChat, our universal chat system across all SOE games. But we can talk about it. (Rothgar)
Q: Can the Inspect window be improved to show stats like Critical Mitigation, Crit Bonus, etc.? Critical Mitigation in particular is a requirement for certain dungeons.
A: We did update the Inspect window for Achievements. Certainly this is easy to implement, but it’s also a Design question as far as what data players want to be revealed on an Inspect. We can talk about this.
Q: Any plans for new Mythical weapons?
A: Tallon, Vallon, and Sullon Zek in hardmode raids all drop new Mythical weapons. They will be best-in-class weapons for a while.
Q: Is there a particular reason why bards do not have any true aoes? If not could we have some added or possibly have some of our green aoes changed to blue? It’s funny that bards, who do their damage by singing, can’t damage mobs in an area — does sound travel in a straight line? 🙂
A: There’s a possibility bards may get a blue AoE, if design/balance makes sense. (Xelgad)
Q: When will necro pet get shared resists/crit mit, curently pets have low to zero resists and get wiped by AE’s(still)
A: In the discussion about Beastlord pets, we’re looking at AoE immunity. We would also look at Summoner pets at this time. (FF panel)
Q: Regarding the stat change, will dieties be revamped? If so, what is the timeline?
A: Deity spells/buffs are going to change to grant a buff to all 5 stats across the board. (FF panel)
Q: Up till now progression has been an increase in level every couple of years and more aa each year, with thoughts of moving away from the Expansion every year model (woohoo) How do you see progression moving forward. Will it be periodic increases in AA? Bigger and bigger gear? I hope to stay away from level increases. lol.
A: We’re not raising the level cap beyond 90 for the foreseeable future. There are mechanics limitations that made it quite difficult just to go 80-90 and would be even harder to go to 100. So the level cap will stay 90 for some years to come.
Q: Are there any enhancements coming to the inventory system? It would be great to have a grid-based, sortable inventory system for managing years and years worth of stuff.
A: We’re looking at keeping Quest items out of your inventory and we’re continuing to chip away at Inventory management, as we already have done with Mounts and Currency. (SmokeJumper).
Q: We’ve been promised for long now that they’ll be many improvements in flora system, trees, sky box … The world under water could also be improved. Shader 3 is still buggy, and there are not many new armor models. I mean REAL new model, not only recolored, re-textured.
A: EQ2 has a new graphics guy as of Destiny of Velious — Alex “GermInUSA”. He is working on Shader 3 as well as some of these other items. We should expect new features soon. Bug reports and screenshots of broken Shaders are crucially important for tracking down buggy shaders.
Q: Spell and combat arts animations are the same since day 1 and I’ve not seen any animation for a while. Even for dances and emotes …
A: With the new Animation Copy-Paste System, it is now possible to add a new character animation and have it work for all 26 races, rather than having to re-do the animation 26 times. As a result, new animations are MUCH more likely. New dances will probably be first, but /sitchair is on test and lying on beds is also in the works.
Q: Dungeons are gorgeous but outdoor zones are often empty and low level details.
A: You might have heard of an upcoming Freeport revamp.
Q: Why are the boxes the war runes come in not heirloom? They don’t unlock the rune till you open the box, and it’s not preventing us from selling or alt-looting them, its just making it a huge hassle.
A: The design/implementation of War Runes is probably not going to be repeated going forward. (Xelgad)
Q: Will we see a meaningful progression in mount speeds return in the near future instead of just a progression in mount type?
A: The progression is Ground mounts, Leaper mounts, Glider mounts, and Flying mounts. We did side-by-side comparisons of 4 typical mounts running across Commonlands and balanced it based on how fast they got across the zone. Also the fact that you can “point a flying mount in the direction you want to go, hit Autorun, go grab a sandwich, and when you come back you’re where you wanted to be”. (SmokeJumper)
Q: Any chance we will eventually be able to mail more than one item at a time?
A: We can look at that, but it means changes to uChat which is our universal mail system across all SOE games.
Q: Tinkered flying mounts or more variety in vehicles?
A: Aaron has been working on more tinkered items.
Q: Smokejumper mentioned earlier this year that there were plans for a replacement for the live servers free trial, are there any further details?
A: Free Trial will be back on Live soon.
Q: We were promised accurate real time xml data feeds for sites to replace EQ2players, where is that project and when will it be released?
A: They are pretty much done, and Platform is now working on it. This should make an appearance ‘Soon’ after the entirely new EQ2Players site launches.
Q: Can we get UI docking and scaling?
A: Windows in EQ2 are already not positioned absolutely, but based on an edge, as in X pixels away from the edge. But I could look at docking. Scaling I’d like to do, but it would add another rendering pass. It might look a bit ugly. (Rothgar)
Q: Can a simple system be implemented that would show (in a bag full of collection items) those which a character NEEDS differently to those they have already ? Could the ones that are not needed perhaps get the same mechanic as armour that cannot be equipped and turn red ?
A: This question came up in the panels in a bit of a different form, but the long and short of it was “Can items which are no longer needed for a quest/collection/etc. be greyed out?” and the answer was “We can look into that.”
Q: I second the “where’s the class manifesto you promised us” question mentioned above.
A: The person who promised the class manifesto is no longer on the EQ2 team, and since classes change so frequently, such a document would be impossible. Not gonna happen.
Questions Already Answered
And some questions which have already been answered, already fixed, etc…
Q: Voltaan is tired! When will he be able to sit down in a chair or lay down on a bed?
A: /sitchair is on test.
Q: In PVP on Nagafen, players who mentor down to a lower level to help another player can be killed, even beyond the current scope of PVP range by zone. Will Sony return to respecting PVP range or will it become the standard that players should be even more wary of helping other players as they may be attacked?
A: Pretty sure this was already changed so you can now fight back while mentored.
Any plans on upgrading the game engine? which right now and as ever struggle to run maxed out on super fast pcs.
Would be great to see multicore cpu support properly implemented not the current minor one.
Feldon, I’d like to thank you because my questions have been all answered 🙂
I hope this is a serious possibility. One is better than none…
Wanted to add thanks Feldon for of your hard work.
I thought the whole point of making them write a class manifesto was so there would be something in writing for the /devs/ to refer to, so they wouldn’t keep changing them so frequently. Or at least that’s what I’ve heard some say. If that’s so, then SJ’s answer seems to miss the point entirely.
Feldon I have to say a big thank you for genuinely trying to get the questions posed to you asked. One of mine was answered specifically and one I hope will be addressed.
With that in mind do you think from the small conversations you had that they are going to look at all pet survivability ? As an Illy, this is a major problem for me in raids at the moment. I think it commits suicide TBH as nothing dies this fast. Is this in theme or just summoners (who in fairness lose more with the issue but have the same issue as I do) Gut feeling really is what I am looking for.
Thanks again though. Coverage specific to the questiosn and what we all want to see is superb. I never look anywhere nut here for my info nowadays.
I added in a question and answer about GPU/CPU and threads on dual core. As for graphics revamps, not sure if you noticed but since Velious, water reflections were completely rebuilt and work perfectly now instead of the old fake ones.
As an add on to Karofin’s question, I really hope to see chanter classes in general getting looked at in the pet aoe revamp. As a coercer it is a pain in the butt to try to copy a pet during raid only to have it die to aoe in 10 seconds. Would love to be able to keep my pet longer plsthnx 🙁
Feldon…nice job getting our questions answered! To add to one that you had above:
“Q: Any chance we will eventually be able to mail more than one item at a time?
A: We can look at that, but it means changes to uChat which is our universal mail system across all SOE games.”
I believe they also said that thye may be able to crate items to permit multi-item mailing. I don’t remember if it was followed by a, “we can look at it” (i.e. neat idea, but not something we’re doing) or not. 🙂
Anyone know anything else about the new mythical items? Are they different items or do they look the same as the previous mythicals.
Thanks Feldon!
Great job.
Question not asked but somewhat answered : can we move all the appearance item in an appearance tab or even better, have a wardrobe in your house to put all your appearance items. Eventually in the same register : be able to transform a piece or armory/cloth… into appearance item
It kinda sucks that on the nagafen server when you are mentoring down and helping a lower toon around level 15 and a level 90 can come out of nowhere and hit a few times and kill you due to being mentored down and your health being lower. You can not unmentor during this time and yes you might be able to attack back but how is that going to save you when your health is only 2k and their health is at 30k. No matter what it isnt fair that a 90 can still hit you no matter what level you are mentor at. It should be within level range like it used to be. Its just stupid now, hence why i left and went to a non-pvp server cause the pvp isn’t what it used to be. Its just rape, The ratio to Q’s VS Freep’s is 20-1. Its ridiculous and I for one will have no part in it until they fix the pvp and make it more worth while since i cant even finish a pvp writ due to how bad we are out numbered. I cant even participate in the warfields due to the 5 x4 raids of q’s that are in KP since they wont even let me get near the tower to get flaged. So the question is when are they going to restore the pvp back to what it was in its awesome glory days??????
First of all: thanks for the great coverage!
Any word on possible changes to arrow consumption or doing away with arrows entirely?
I talked to Rothgar about arrow consumption, although it’s really more a Xelgad or Silius question. A mechanics change like this won’t happen without consulting tradeskills, class balance, etc. I explained that it’s not just ‘whiny rangers’ but also affects troubadors and to a lesser extent dirges who are jousting/at range on AoE fights.
Thanks for asking my question!