Feldon Dellmon and Aliscious have conducted a great post-launch interview with Kyle “Kander” Vallée about EQ2’s recent Tears of Veeshan expansion, talking about what worked and what didn’t, and sharing a few tidbits of the future. Our illustrious host Dellmon’s protestations that he shall never reforge nor adorn do wear a bit, but it’s nonetheless a fantastic interview worth listening to if you wish to hear the thought processes behind the expansion, as well as a look at EQ2’s coming months.
As for prescient sneak peaks within the interview, look for more raid content, a fabled Kingdom of Sky zone (level 95 Sanctum of Scaleborn please?), and PvP/Battleground fixes are all on the way, with at least some of this landing as early as January. Kyle also took a moment to share his appreciation for EQ2Wire and our coverage of the expansion. He was generous in his comments and I was a bit stunned to say the least.
No doubt many of you are no doubt driving or flying to and from visits with family over the holidays, so go ahead and grab a download! From EQ2Talk.com:
EQ2 Talk welcomes back Kyle “Kander” Vallée, EQ2 lead designer! Kander helps take the mystery out of some of the itemization changes that happened in game with the Tears of Veeshan expansion. He touches on the team’s goals for changes to healers, best in slot items, new content and some of the mechanics changes. He also gives us a vague hint at what we can expect in the near future.
Note that while the linked article has a date of “December 8th”, the actual podcast was only uploaded 2-3 days ago.
ToV very enjoyable BUT what was missed? Size. This expansion is simply too small – similar feel to KoS (as in floating islands) – some nice touches. But about 1/3 the size. Solo content is extremely limited . Can’t comment on raid content. Hopefully this will be addressed in a GU or “adventure pack”.
Agreed. I think what we need is another Kunark or DoV sized expansion. Lot’s of stuff to do, lot’s of space to do it in, but none of the cheap “Heres three of the same zone. Let’s call make people think each is a different thing, but really just make an advanced solo, a heroic, and a raid” stuff they’ve been doing for several years now.
I’m betting that part of it’s the shift away from huge expansions and then no new areas until the next expansion, and towards new areas released in game updates. I’m betting we’ll see new overland areas released in the spring, along with the new fabled dungeon(s). Eg., Withered Lands and Cobalt Scar.
Pure cost containment, players spend a very limited time in overland zones these days. So reduce the number of new overland zones and those that you do make simply “reskin” existing old zones that will no longer be played now that there is a shortcut to level 85.
Reskinning doesn’t really save much money. It saves time and reduces bugs when the basic geography’s there already, but they’ve still got to create the art assets and textures and environment, they’ve got to create and place the NPCs and mobs, design and place all the quests… my guess is that outweighs the work involved in creating a new map for a zone by an order of magnitude.
You see it more on the dungeons, where they literally reuse the entire zone for the advanced solo, heroic and raid instances. The mobs differ but the art, textures, literally the zone itself is identical. That saves money.
Eq2’s existing Terrain Editor is painful to use and requires months work to build a new zone. But retexturing an existing zone can be done in a fraction of the time. Hopefully the new terrain editor allows large over lands to be added.
Kunark had 18 designers. Eq2 team now has 6.
Your guess is wrong. If reskinning did not save real money then they would have used new geometry rather than reskinning they have reskinned: the Feerrott, Loping Plains and now Tenebrous Tangle. They have also added new dungeon zone ins to Eastern Wastes and Jarsath Wastes. A few years ago new oveland zones would have supported these dungeons.
But you are right about the “reuse” of dungeons being a saving. It is all of a piece. Declining revenues means that costs must be reduced. As Feldon says below: Kunark had 18 designers the EQ2 team now has 6.
For next year’s level cap raise, I think we’ll see a few overlands.
@grys
Vesspyr is just a reskinned barren sky. It’s no conincidence it feels like KoS.
well they still need to address healing, they went way out on hit points and not enough on healing, and like others well, it is a very small xpac, and I felt that yes we took old zones and re-skinned those.
I wonder if they will do any expanding on the expansion though, like adding skyshrine, cobalt scar, withered lands (my brain is still christmas-fuzzy/post holliday shell shocked. XD so tell me if I’m wrong on those being GUs and not xpacks, or if i missed any)
I’m really amazed with EQ2 Talk comments.
This extension offered us what has been missing the most since… EQ1 : Choice.
And these guys are complaining to Kander because there would be too much choice ?
Come on ! We have an infinite way to set up our gear. As a tank, I can choose between a wide combination of block/extra riposte/Health/dps/flurry/AoE…
THAT’S A FIRST OF A KIND ! And I love it.
So, some will struggle to find the right combination of stuff ?
There’s not ONE combination anymore, you now can find different ways to set up your gear depending on the encounter.
EQ2 has always been a complex game, but if you don’t want to spend your time to understand it, don’t disgust others. Please.
They also changed the dammage/health pool ratio, and it’s the best idea they implemented since GU 13. We are back into a game where people can play their role.
For all of this, Thank you so much Kander !