June 4th, 2015 Livestream Notes — EoF Fabled Zones June 23rd, Summer Ethereals, Campansion 12 Info!
Feldon Today Robert “Caith” Fouts, Nathan “Kaitheel” McCall, and Kyle “Kander” Vallee were joined by EQ2 Community Manager Ry “Roshen” Schuller to talk about upcoming changes in this fall’s expansion-sized Campaign, or as the EQ2 team has been calling — the Campansion. Here are my rough notes, subject to my interpretation and these are mostly not direct quotes. Any mistakes are my own!
Amplifying Infusing
Players have be able to upgrade armor through Gems and adding Essences to change the Damage type on Weapons. However this has been very limited as it requires the devs to create hundreds of items for each boost/change. A new feature is coming with this fall’s Campansion #12 (Expansion-sized Campaign) called Amplifying Infusing which will allow items to be customized and upgraded on a more detailed level. Not all items in the game will be upgradeable, as this will be limited to items in the expansion and perhaps a few AoM/RC items. For example, you might get a bauble from a zone that allows you to boost stats or add a totally new stat to an item. You will be able to change the Weapon Delay (1, 2, 4, 6, 8) and Damage Type (Mental, Fire, Noxious) on Weapons.
current prototype of Amplifying
Amplifying Infusing requires a dropped material (which could be rare) to boost an item. We’re not sure what it costs just to change the stats, delay, or damage type on an item. The prototype shown just costs plat, but the finalized version will use a material. This will work alongside but not replace Reforging which will largely remain in its current form. The plan is to have a longer expansion Beta test this year so that more feedback can be collected on this feature.
Summer Ethereal Weapons
New rare dropped weapons with powerful effects. These drop in Altar of Malice and Rum Cellar heroic zones (and probably event heroics too) at the same rate (rarer than a rare steak!) as we’ve seen with past ethereals.
These will drop in three waves during the summer. The first wave will last 30 days and have four weapons to start with and then every month we’ll put in a different wave of weapons and we’ll post about it. The examples shown above are a mixture of the different waves. Every archetype will have something useful in each wave.
Ethereals ARE IN-GAME NOW (Windstalker tweet) might start dropping as soon as Tomorrow. They drop from the final boss of Altar of Malice/Rum Cellar, not the quest box.
Most Procs/Effects Moving to Weapons
In an effort to make things make more sense, reduce lag, etc., we are moving procs (effects) off of Jewelry to just Weapons. The goal is to not nerf players but make players as powerful as they are now, but with fewer procs. Charms are going to stay the same as far as clicky effects. We’re not sure if we’ll put two procs on two-handed weapons or just make one powerful effect.
Progression Server?
In the past, we’ve talked about how difficult it would be to do a progression server for EverQuest II. We’ve been talking about what it would take to do, what form such a server could take. We’ve of course been watching how popular EverQuest’s Ragefire progression server has been. Indeed it’s been so popular they had to spin up a second one.
Just to clarify, the code of the EverQuest II game as it existed as launch no longer exists as it has been patched over, however there are a lot of possibilities and challenges we could do to make an attractive server.
Echoes of Faydwer Fabled Zones — June 23rd
The EQ2 team has had these done for a while, but they haven’t been officially confirmed until today.
Each year we’ve been going back to a past expansion and doing Fabled versions of popular dungeons from that release. This year, we’ve produced fabled versions of the following dungeons from the Echoes of Faydwer:
- Adv Solo: Acadechism
- Adv Solo: Court of Innovation
- Adv Solo: Crypt of Valdoon
- Heroic: Acadechism
- Heroic: Court of Innovation
- Heroic: Crypt of Valdoon
- Raid: Freethinker’s Hideout
- Raid: Freethinker’s Hideout [Raid]
Fabled zones are FREE and have Achievements, Titles, Collections, and new Loot.
Reducing Itemization Sets and Token Grind
Some of the new loot from the Fabled dungeons is a preview of the philosophy we’ll see in the Campansion. Instead of seven or nine stat packages, we’ll have four stat packages in the expansion. We’re going to get away from the Token grind and towards actual drops and knowing where specific drops drop. We’ll do Tokens for expendibles and adornments, but the focus will not be on grinding tokens for gear. Less armor sets and tiers.
Erollisi Marr as a Worshippable Deity — July
This is currently on the Test server and requires Good alignment and level 20+. I’ll do a separate post about this.
Deity Revamp
Last year, we promised that we’d be revamping the Deity system. We’re going to add a system on your character with the Campansion with a “Tithe” system. The team isn’t fully ready to discuss this yet as it’s still being planned and tested. We’re going to leave the previous Deity system functional with the existing quests and miracles and blessings and the existing Altars. We want to have a reason to have a house-placed Altar and upgrade your Altar. We’re talking about opening up more Deities to be worshippable as far as alignments.
Yes there will still be falling anvils (one of Bristlebane’s favorite miracles)!
New Kill Counts, NPC Races
We’re adding plenty of new enemy types (NPCs) and they will of course have kill count achievements in the Campansion.
Campansion #12 Prelude Event
Eagle-eyed players have noticed prelude events on the in-game Calendar for August. Kaitheel talked about this some. The prelude quest will reward something memorable.
PvP?
We’re thinking about PvP and we’re discussing a lot of different things. We don’t have the magic bullet to fix PvP and we’re not ready to talk about our plans today.
Mission Timers
Rum Cellar introduced a weekly rolling mission and we plan to continue this in the expansion.
Producer’s Letter and Candid Kander
EQ/EQ2 Executive Producer Holly “Windstalker” Longdale was staffing the Twitch chat channel during the livecast and is currently working on a more detailed Producer’s Letter to be posted today. Then Kander will posting another open letter talking in more detail like he did last month.
Level Agnostic Dungeons
Actually we are planning that some of the new Campansion dungeons will be level-agnostic on day one. We have new level-agnostic dungeons in the can and coming soon. We’re still limited to level 94 at this point.
Cross-Server Dungeons
This is still in process and the coders are working on this. We’re still discussing a lot of things and there’s a lot of stuff coming this year. Hold onto your hats.
Guild Level Raise and Guild Perks?
We’re not sure about more guild hall amenities, but we do want to add cool stuff. We still want players out in the world as opposed to hidden in their guild hall. We understand that guild halls are convenience.
Server Merges, Transfers and Population
We’ve been talking about these extensively as far as long-term solutions. We want to do the right thing and there are some things we can’t talk about yet.
Daybreak Game Cards?
We’re working on phasing out the SOE 30-day game cards and get Daybreak cards printed and distributed. This takes a lot of time. Old cards should still work.
Player Studio Items
There’s been a bit of a backlog on new Player Studio items on the Marketplace, but Holly confirmed that we’ll see new items in-game in the next few weeks.
Scout Changes?
Possibly more changes before the Campansion. We have a lot of plans for changes with the Campansion. Not drastic where you login and your Paladin is now a Shadowknight.
New Rum Cove Prestige House
A new prestige home was showcased which allows flying and has lots of places to build new things, or you can use the existing buildings which have been provided.
The winner of the prestige house poll was also announced.
This is my Reader’s Digest notes I took during the livecast. Stay tuned for the full Livecast to be posted.
Thanks Feldon for posting the highlights!
Yay for less grinding tokens for gear – hated that with a passion since they first introduced it – it’s the main reason why I am far from well geared up – I get bored.. Yay for actual drops again! One thing I’ve detested especially in the last few years is that named mobs in dungeons no longer drop nice chests with proper loot in (a crappy adorn if you’re lucky) and you have to wait till you complete a zone to get anything. It starts feeling like a chore once you don’t need XP/AA. I _really_ miss the old days when each named had a proper loot table.
Personally I also prefer knowing I have a chance of the drop I want each time I run a dungeon/kill a particular mob than knowing for certain that I’m going to have to run a set number of dungeons to get enough tokens to buy the item I want. Not all will agree of course, but I’m happy if this changes.
A small niggle, mostly because the word “Campansion” is cumbersome and ugly – if it’s an Expansion-sized Campaign, isn’t that just an Expansion?
I agree. I also have a fairly unpopular opinion that they need to go back to the 18 hour lockout timers. Each character effectively gets one shot per day, per zone, to try for the items they’re chasing. After that, if that character can’t go back into that zone, perhaps they’ll be willing to help others run the zones they’re wanting to run in return (yes, of course those with a gazillion alts can still run em a gazillion time per day, but it’ll still help). Being able to run the same zone every 90 minutes lets you get through the content quicker but also gets you finished and bored faster with nothing left to do but play an alt. I’d much rather log in, do a couple zones, then have to wait til tomorrow to do more, than log in, play for a month or two, then wait for several months to want to do more. But that’s just me, I’m weird. 🙂
No. To this idea I say, No.
Last time I remember rare loot only dropping in heroic zones like this was Sentinel’s Fate? maybe? Whenever it was, if you think running the same zone over and over again is bad now, at least NOW I know, after doing the zone 20, 30, 50 times, I can buy the item I want. I got ABSOLUTELY fed up with rolling against everyone and their alts, doing a zone 40, 50, 100 times and NEVER getting an item.
AND, it didn’t help when people started running zones and winning items; they stopped wanting to go back to those zones, and it got harder to get people going to zones you still didn’t get loot from.
I am not against loot dropping in zones. i’m all for it, but I’d like the best of BOTH worlds; even if it costs more, at least let me know I have the chance to win the item OR, after 50 runs, I can earn tokens and go to the merchant and buy the damned thing.
Drop ONLY, sucks. Relying on the RNG sucks. Depending on others to come help you in zones they have the loot for, when there are other zones they want to do instead, sucks. Helping others do the zones they want, then the group breaks up before you get to do your zone, sucks. Counting on people not rolling on need because an alt, of an alt, of an alt needs that item too, sucks. Logging on and not being able to group because everyone AND their alt has an 18 hour lockout timer, sucks. Not being able to do any zones because you have 1 or 2 characters (and don’t want any more) instead of 6 accounts with 10 alts each, sucks.
I hope they re-think this decision ’cause, in case you missed it, I think it sucks.
Yep. Loved the SF, and RoK days. Back when people wanted to go to a zone because of what dropped there. Running zone who cares to get X amount of tokens to by my gear and get full 4/4 green gemmed out without ever setting foot in the hardest zone, sucks.
Told ya it was an unpopular opinion.
I actually agree.
These days, you just run the same few dungeons over and over and over till you get the tokens you need to buy the gear. There is minimal challenge – everyone can get the same stuff relatively easily.
Personally, although again I suspect I am in a minority, I prefer to maybe never get an item and be a bit jealous of those who have it, than effectively just let everyone have everything. No non-raid gear feels special any more – you just throw plat or whatever alt currency at it and get what you want. Having nice/unusual gear really isn’t anything special any more – no-one (except maybe raiders, I don’t know, I hate raiding) really, properly has to earn anything any more, just get enough currency and you can buy it. Everyone just ends up wearing the same.
I still remember the thrill of finally getting an item I dreamed of from one of the dungeons in Kunark – took months of on/off grouping and hoping and I really felt proud and happy when I got it at last, especially with my normal record on the RNG. Maybe having a great guild to group with who do true Need before Greed in all groups helps.
Grinding tokens is simply too easy – it’s just time-consuming busy work and with no meaningful lockouts even that doesn’t need to take that long. I personally really like the challenge of trying to get a drop. And at least you get stuff for alts/other people or to mute/sell.
However I’m not obsessed with having the best and prefer nice things to be a proper challenge to acquire, so maybe I’m not the one to ask.
Exactly. I remember trying to get the [eq2u]Carotidcutter[/eq2u] for a year and never winning the roll. I remember people asking to go to maidens for a specific item. One of the ice zones for a shield for an SK guild mate. Najena’s Hollow Tower for all the mages to get [eq2u]Najena’s Ring of Readiness[/eq2u]. It took time to get the items you wanted due to the longer lockout timers so the content lasted more calendar days. I’m sure it’s unpopular, but I truly think it would be better in the long run for the game. Even if you did have some /ragequit because they don’t have time to wait around 18 hours to do a zone again.
You know, this comes dangerously close to me actually being excited. Time to wait and see how this actually plays out.
Holly also confirmed the “winner” of the player housing survey we had in in game mail was High Keep. But also that that wasn’t to say we wouldn’t see some of the other choices too.
I can’t fathom that they don’t have the original code. Surely they must have been using SVN or some other form of version control. How did they roll back changes if a patch broke something?
@Pipsissiwa:
They probably don’t want to call it an expansion because historically expansions included all the previous content. (With the exception of Age of Discovery.)
So now when you go to buy a campaign you more than likely will have to purchase the previous expansion, and possibly campaign(s), as well if you aren’t already caught up.
There have been a lot of huge sweeping changes and old stuff basically got deleted from what I heard. For example, the only way to go pre GU 13 would be to rewrite it from scratch.
The itemization and less token grind makes me so very happy…. I ALWAYS hated the stupid grind to get small gems to get a SINGLE piece of gear up to what it should have been upon looting it!
Except if you think about it that’s all the amplification system is. You’ll have to grind gems (or whatever they end up making the item look like) in order to upgrade gear (apparently not a straight upgrade, notice the screenshot displays a chance for it to work?).
Being able to choose a weapon delay is great. The rest? Yawn.
I’m having a hard time to believe they developed this game without a version control system…
We most definitely have version control 🙂 But the way everything in our game interacts, reverting things back even 1 day can make entire systems just stop working. Files are constantly changing and dependencies on those files change as well. Its just a monumental task.
In my day job, I’ve been a programmer on the same system since 1999. I can’t imagine trying to back out all the changes in source control to day one and expect all the external files, OS and DB versions/patches/etc. to actually still work. Hell, when we started we were doing our DB interaction in COM objects with Microsoft Transaction Server. Yeah, trying to go back to day one would be a nightmare.
Thanks for the PvP mention.. I felt like in the stream they couldn’t ignore the chat anymore and just had to say something. Meaning they weren’t planning to say anything about it. It was great when Kandor broken in to give a PvP update, or lack there of. If only they would post what he said openly on the forums. It wasn’t a surprise or even a disappointment… what it was, was “something.” People interested in PvP will take anything at this point…. silence comes across as ignoring and it enrages trolls. They can say it’s being discussed, but seeing the new procs on the eth weapons not have the “not in pvp combat” template is very telling.
And on the progression server…. seriously, they need to let this original code thing go. Nobody, I mean nobody want’s EQ2 2004. EQ1 progression servers that are so popular are NOT project 1999. They are the current LIVE server modified for progression. Why can’t anyone inhouse or even out of house come to terms with this. Modify the existing LIVE EQ2 for progression…. stop making it harder then it actually is.
I mention the shard grind being a giant hassle that drives players away, and **PRESTO!**, it’s declared to be being tweeked within 2 weeks.
I will now take a victory lap.
Feldon, note that the procs (triggered effects) are being removed form jewelry, but you’ll note Kander did mention there will be passive effects on them instead.
Very nice changes incoming. Resubbing now. 🙂
OMG, Everquest 2 team is amazing! This game is still alive and I’m so glad to read the great plans they have! Only good stuff here! Thank you so much Holly for bringing EQ2 where it’s right now 🙂
This whole thing has me excited. Lots of info. Lots of hope. And some changes I was waiting for <3
Hopefully the passives are less "20% crit bonus" and more like "X cool thing happens when conditions are met" or is that too proc like?
lot of things to look after …
this article French translated at http://www.guerrier-celeste.fr/48-frontnews/455-livestream-dbg-du-04-06-2015.html
Traduction française de l’article sur http://www.guerrier-celeste.fr/48-frontnews/455-livestream-dbg-du-04-06-2015.html
On the live stream at around 37 minutes, I heard about an overland zone on the new “Campansion”. So, should we expect something like the “tranquil sea” overland zone with 3 types of instances, and multiples donjons on thoses instances ?
Apparently they talk about only one overland zone, so we may expect something half as big as OaM, with new interesting features for the first campansion.
I would really like for them to open up the amplifying feature to lower levels!