Kander Talks Group and Raid Content in Game Update 63
From EverQuest2.com:
With all the new Heroic and Raid content being released in Game Update 63: SKYSHRINE, we just had to go over and get the inside scoop from Assistant Lead Designer Kyle “Kander” Vallee.
Piestro: How difficult is the heroic and raid content available in Game Update 63: SKYSHRINE? Is this targeted at only the more advanced players or will this content be suitable for every skill level?
Kander: We are really making an effort to see that heroic content is broadly accessible to everyone and try to cover every play style, from the causal solo player to the group player who wants a real challenge. As far as raid content is concerned, we have something for all levels of raiders. We are proud of the depth of the content we are offering in this GU and we have taken a lot of time to create events that not just challenge players, but also tell stories of the region and its inhabitants at all levels.
Tags: game update 63
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Comments (9)
Lempo of Everfrost
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“We are really making an effort to see that heroic content is broadly accessible to everyone and try to cover every play style, from the causal solo player to the group player who wants a real challenge”
Damn, just damn. Heroic content by definition of inspecting the mob states it is well suited for a group of 3 or more players.
Welcome to candyland, The heroic zones will be dropping ridiculous loot this update, and probably provide little or no challenge.
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Atan
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If only what they said matched what they did…
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Dethdlr
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Lempo of Everfrost Wrote:
Should heroic content be balanced around heroic geared players? If so, it’ll be zero challenge for you.
Should heroic content be balanced around raid geared players? If so, then it won’t be accessible to heroic geared players.
Should heroic content be balanced around solo players? That’s an easy one, no.
But that’s not what they’re doing. If I understand it correctly, they are doing a solo, group, and challenge mode of each heroic instance. That way, raiders, heroic instance runners, and solo players can all experience the content regardless of their chosen playstyle.
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Taka
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The (three for one) approach to content, is something I am starting to embrace. It seems that they’ve got a good feel for the three types of players and catering to each.
In velious, you had the
1 solo daily, 1 solo dungeon (crystal caverns), the heroic zones, the [challenge] heroics, and the raids.
With raids, you have the x2 raids and the x4 raids and the x4 hardmode.
While the 1 solo content was trivialized early, it still provided a intro into Velious from previous content.
While x4 hardmode/heroic challenge isn’t trivialized by most players yet, I think this shows the strength of the design and the longevity available from this content. While GU63, will inevitably trivialize some content, I hope it’s designed with enough solo and overland all the way with enough(<–subjective word) heroic challenge and x4 challenge to provide as much content range as Velious.
Sidebar: I do wish they overhaul of their implementation on "public" quests from several people killing one mob or group of mobs to spread out the number of players/mobs doing combat over a larger area updating the public quest.
I just enjoy a variety of content available at any point in time.
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uncle
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grat now instead of 4 types of content broken itll all be broken
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Gourdon
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They have had a problem in the past where there is this huge gap between solo content and heroic content. There needs to be content to span the gap between stupid easy solo stuff and that which requires 6 characters in top of the line solo gear or low end heroic gear. That is roughly an x10 jump in difficulty. There should be something in the middle that drops similar gear to the full blown heroic content, but in much smaller quantities (maybe 1/3 the rate or less) so that there is still advantage to doing the harder heroic version if you can manage it.
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Gourdon
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I agree with you Taka regarding PQs. SOE could learn a bit from RIFT in this regard, though there are problems with the RIFT implementation. However, it seems that they might not be doing PQs going forward.
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Sigtyr
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I totally agree here the main perception seems to be that people are lazy and want a “Win button” and it is not like that, those of us that have only played the solo content have very few chances of even learning the harder heroic content and the dance and the scripts as no one wants to group with a newer player in Heroic content, yes there might be guilds out there that does it but I have not found any.
Rifts idea of a gradual increase in difficulty in dungeons are great, and also there should be incentives to group up in dungeons and instances as of now there are none, and if you reach out and say “we have a big problem with soandso zone” the only replies are how bad and stupid you are. Aions idea about quests that only could be done in the case where a higher level player mentored down to help a lower level player is also a good idea.
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Taka
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If PQs are not in GU63 I would have to agree they couldn’t/can’t the right place for that type of content. PQs are, however, GREAT places to meet people to group who are working on something similar and an excuse for anyone (who understands grouping at all) to hit the invite button rather then declining blind invites from someone trying to do the same stuff you are doing. I think the insertion of the PQ early in levels[1-20+] is a great way to get new players playing together. Also, the player would be freely demonstrating their ability.
There’s a difference in being antisocial and content not being available.
I feel the content is available. One must find the people who do use /dungeonfinder and /lfg and who do invite people in 1-9 chat who spam LFG . The tools might not be “autofind the greatest group ever”, but its a start.
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