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Which Direction do you want EverQuest Next to take?
yewsef
Member CommonPosts: 335
Since SOE is announcing more info about EQ Next but mostly bragging about their graphics engines and PhysX I am just getting even more skeptical on how the management treat their EverQuest IP and really disregard a trade mark that many players wish to relive. The harsh world with a lot of depth, social elements and freedom.
Which direction do you want SOE to take for EverQuest Next developement. Do you want them to go the EQ2 direction which is by re-inventing the game with new features that almost doesn't play like it's predecessor. Or do you want EverQuest Next to play like the Original EverQuest with the difficulty level, itemization, no hand holding, dangerous world, classes system, faction system, races, starting zones for each race, and everything that was good about EQ1?
Comments
Kunark and Velious were the best to expansions I believe. Shadows was ok, but that started the whole "keying" for raid themes. While I was in a high end guild and was able to get all the high end places/loot. That styple MMO was when every played didnt want instant gratification, and now players wont want to sink all that time into farming items to just get "flagged" to get into certain zones.
....Being Banned from MMORPG's forums since 2010, for Trolling the Trolls!!!
how about a fun world of sandbox, I really don't want a harsh world......real life is harsh enough :P
How much WoW could a WoWhater hate, if a WoWhater could hate WoW?
As much WoW as a WoWhater would, if a WoWhater could hate WoW.
Thing is, there is nothing to brag about, the engine looks like something made for the PS2.
SoE is on their 4th failed project in a row. Free Realms, The Agency, MTG Tactics, DCU Online. All of them underperformed and half of their staff was shown the door.
They're out of cash and can't compete anymore. SoE is done.
I would defintely play a sandbox over any themepark. But since this is EverQuest Next (an IP) I personally believe SOE should stick to the original spirit. How Themepark should be made. Freedom but with lots of content and depth (Big Dungeons, Faction System, Many starting areas, Races, Cities, Traveling).. that kind of game is what "themepark" should be. But otherwise if there's a new IP released I'd hope it would be a Sandbox just because I know if it wasn't a sandbox it will be another Quest Grind (Quest Driven) crap.
I want SOW to mean something again. I want Bilge to spawn.
I agree. Shadows of Luclin wasn't THAT bad I really loved the AA system. But ever since SoL and the introdction of Spires the world of EQ changed and I am also not a fan of Aliens and the Moon in a fantasy setting. Then PoP game to destroy 1. Traveling (putting druids and wizards out of business), 2. Faction system (now you don't care about factions because Plane of Knowledge has EVERYTHING you need). and 3. Made the game a Raiding Game with a lot of content blocked for the casual.
Ever since things got worse and worse with every expansion until they've managed to mutate what once was a World Experience to a bastard child of a game design concept that is not clear anymore.
You speak the truth.
Which is probably why SOE should listen to us this time. A lot of people demand the Classic EverQuest experience. They won't need to spend a lot of money on new technologies or design concepts or even lore. Everything is available, no need for innovation. They just have to try it this time and see how it goes.
But the reality says.. they will focus on graphics, physx and all the unnecessary things and ignore what made the game the game it was... which would eventually end up to be just another disappointment of shallow game play with no life and no character. Another mish-mash and another copy of all the Quest Driven crap that was done before but with PhysX this time... yay!
I'm not sure I can say that I would like SoE to stick to the roots of the original EQ without judging myself as a flaming fanboi. I try to be honest with myself and I just don't see that style of themepark making it in this day and age. SoE needs to be bold here, use the IP to push the genre instead of regressing or copying others. Given the risk/reward of their own failed attempts recently I'm not sure how SoE will view this sort of risk though.
This isn't to say there isn't anything worth keeping from the original, but I think mixing old and new with some new innovative mechanics could make EQ Next my next wet dream MMO.
"They essentially want to say 'Correlation proves Causation' when it's just not true." - Sovrath
Overall I think Luclin gets unfairly looked down upon by EQ players. Overall I think it was a pretty decent expansion. My main complaints about the expansion were that some of the zones were kind of boring feeling - particularly a lot of the outdoor zones, and that the raid content was filled with mobs with insane HP totals.
Personally I'd like to see something with sort of a feel of pre-PoP EQ, but take some things from modern games like get rid of zones, cut down on the downtime (don't need instant mana regen like most games, but the out of combat regen they added later was a nice touch), give all classes at least some ability to solo (grouping should still always the preferred method of advancing though). I would be open to using some instancing but keep it to a minimum. For open world dungeons, randomize the locations of rare spawns so we eliminate or reduce the amount of camping that goes on.
Though all of us would love to see SOE take the EQ Classic sandbox approach for which we all have so much nostalgia, sadly I doubt it is ever going to happen. SOE is looking to make money first; they have always put players second. They are going to go with genre trends and try to anticipate what will attract the most players.
If they could only bring back that magic...
This poll sucks. No option for OTHER? Maybe not everyone played EQ. I only trialed it and hated it. Played EQ2, loved some aspects hated others. So I would go for a complete third option. 2 things I would change from EQ2 to have EQNext be better, one they are already doing.
1. Seamless world. No stupid zones or boundary walls. News on this is it will be. Yay.
2. Better, Faster, more intense combat. This means movement and UI need to be up to snuff as well to accomodate it. Heck, if they changed this with EQ1 and 2 I would actually play THEM right now, but we all know that's not going to happen.
What about Clone Wars Adventure?
How much WoW could a WoWhater hate, if a WoWhater could hate WoW?
As much WoW as a WoWhater would, if a WoWhater could hate WoW.
I voted for EQ classic because I hated the Luclin expansion. I did like LDON for the most part though, so maybe I'm not the best person to be talking about the virtues of classic EQ.
There are some thing I liked about EQ and some I didn't.
I like the idea of having a dangerous world if there is a pervasive sense of danger everywhere. Either because mobs roam or because there's the random giant walking around here or there. But don't make it just one zone like WoW's Hellfire Penninsula with the one guy walking around. That's just annoying and makes you want to go elsewhere where you can be left alone. Every zone should be dangerous or none should be.
I like the idea of increased difficulty. I'm not sure that it should be that you're forcing grouping even in the open world, but there should be some danger to it so you can't just go AFK mid fight. I'm dabbling in this game right now Cthulhu Saves the World, a parody of an old school RPG. In that game you instantly heal up after every combat, but mobs can kind of smack your people around, and they get stronger as the fight progresses. I'd be interested in seeing an MMO system kind of like that. It wouldn't exclude solo players, but you'd have to stay engaged to win.
I'm in the middle on hand holding. I don't think there should be a quest GPS telling you exactly where you need to go. But I don't mind some sparkles on the things I need to pick up. It's better than mousing over the entire screen and hoping the cursor changes.
I'm not a fan of EQ's faction system. You shouldn't have to kill 10000 gnolls so you can get into Qeynos just to find out that you're still KOS to the Corrupt Guards of Qeynos because it didn't raise that faction. I'm not a huge fan of grinds either, especially when you're basically committing genocide on lower level mobs. I did like the idea of secret tunnels in Freeport to get through the area. I'd rather see a long quest system where a city slowly learns it can trust you, or something.
Not a huge fan of the class system, which was that Enchanter and Cleric were mandatory in every group. Spread out the responsibility.
Different starting zones each with their own feel is great. Loved those masked halfling guards. Though I think an option to start in a different city so you can play with your friends from the start would be good. Part of the charm of EQ is those insane runs though, so I can't say GW2 style free city to city teleportation would fit. Choose a new city if you want, but you're stuck there.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." -Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
Not a lot of choices here.
I think they can take a lot of great things from most of EQ's expansions, even the bad ones. Luclin provided a lot of content, not just for end game raiding either. The new leveling zones were great and they added the Beastlord class and the feline race. I don't view Luclin as a turning point for the game. Additions of convenience functionality such as Bazaars and free teleports to places were also a plus, and if they don't add basic functionality like a Bazaar or Auction House to Everquest Next I probably will not be playing it, as I don't feel like wasting my time shouting my wares all day in Commonlands Tunnels anymore.
Planes of Power on the other hand had a focus solely on higher level content, mainly raiding. I feel like that expansion took EQ in the wrong direction. That doesn't mean they can't learn from it, and there were a lot of great things in the PoP expansions (raid bosses finally needed strategy beyond zerging and running in and out of the AoE). LDoN content was great too even though it was instanced content I really enjoyed the mission style somewhat random gameplay it brought to the table. The brief DLC expansion they had (I can't remember the name of it) provided some decent leveling content, but overall I think that was a failure for them. Beyond that I stopped playing, but I've heard fond memories of the Gates of Discord and Omens of War expansions from someone who played during it too.
I feel like for EQ Next they need to focus on what made the original EQ great: exploration, unforgiving gameplay, less focus on traditional linear questing you see in modern MMOs, open world / everything is contested, truely epic quests that take months to complete such as the epic weapons and Coldain shawl, and huge GM run events while adding in the accessibility and improvements of modern MMOs: faster combat, less time wasting (waiting 15 minutes for a boat, medding for mana, etc.), UI accessibility, removal of ridiculous attunement/key requirements, achievements, well-scripted raid encounters (not just tank and spank), dynamic scaling, public quests, removal of overly harsh death penalties, less reliance on the trinity, housing, better crafting systems, etc.
Basically EQ Next needs to be designed with the target audience of the old school in mind. If they specifically make another game that trys to cover all of the primary MMO market (the WoW audience) then they will not do well, simply because there is too much competition already doing that. If they cater to the more niche audience of old school MMOers, explorers, and roleplayers than I feel like they could still get a good chunk of the pie (1 million super dedicated subscribers). They claim to be doing this with by looking back and trying to make the game more like Everquest and not Everquest 2, but I think SOE is in bad shape right now financially so who knows if they'll even be able to follow through with it.
Speaking as a Druid, I was HAPPY that PoP put me out of business with the PoK and the books that let people travel wherever they wanted whenever they wanted. I could finally play the damn game instead of having people spamming me with tells to demand that I drop what I was doing and cart them around so they could finish their quests.
I quit with the Ykesha expansion because RL intervened and I couldn't play for a while, leaving my guild to outlevel me by 20+ levels, so I don't know any of the changes that happened to EQ after that. Still, the PoK and the books were a godsend. Not only could my duo partner and I create whatever we wanted and then start wherever we wanted from level 1, but people could get around freely on their own. It was great.
Except for factions, classes and separate starting zones, all these things I would like EQnext to have. I also want to it to play absolutely NOTHING like EQ1, which is an outdate, tediously slow and boring game by today's standards. It was a great game 10 years ago, but you know, progress has occurred, to ignore it is to go into the same infernal pit where vanguard is currently burning.
No one - especially not SOE - cares what we think. They're just going to make some kind of hybrid between SWTOR and GW2 and claim that it's "progress" while adding absolutely nothing to the industry.
Then again, EQ2 added very little to the industry and i've been happily playing it for 7 years. Well maybe not "happily", i do realize it's many flaws, but i've thoroughly enjoyed it.
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO
Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall
Currently Playing: ESO
I wouldn't bet against SOE going for a raid focused end game. They absolutely adore it and it's the lazy devs way of designing content and they are a lazy bunch. Vanguard wasn't designed with a raiding focus and yet the first thing SOE did when they acquired it was to add raid after raid before they stopped adding anything at all. Same thing with EQ2, when it first released, it was pretty raid light, now it's raid or die just like every SOE game.
I hope they could make EQ with Kunark and Velious. And make it exactly like it was in the Good Ol Days. But let's be real. It's SOE and SOE does'nt have a WOW or RIFT. So you know Everquest Next will be like those games.
I would rather them go back in time but they want. It will be another PuG, raid instances and dungeons that you have to do every day so you can get a token to get a nice item. O how I miss the day of just hoping to be in a group that is at the camp of the mob I need. I loved that feeling of getting that itme that I have been craving for a week. Remember what made it called " evercrack".
Those days are gone. I know. It's SOE. not Verant. But maybe a mirical will happen. Not holding my breath,
Jymm Byuu
Playing : Blood Bowl. Waiting for 2. Holding breath for Archeage and EQN.
It should be Everquest updated (Modern UI, better graphix, some sandbox features), if they make another EQ2 they can just as well shut the Studios.
Here's my thinking. The "WoW" group have plenty of AAA titles to choose from that offer the same basic principles of gameplay with slightly differing mechanics/settings. From looking at these forums many gamers, myself included, long for the days of yore and a more "EQ" feel and we don't have much to choose from. Now, going back to the olden days with newer tech wouldn't have the potential to be a "WoW killer" but it would be almost a sure lock for those that don't want a mainstream WoW mmo and would give SoE a very solid, respectable player base.
Sometimes it's better to take a sure thing than it is to gamble for the jackpot.
They do
EQ2 has been produced for 4 years by Scott Hartsman, Rift producer.
In fact I never bought Rift because playing Beta, the similarities between the latest EQ2 and Rift were too much to digest.
I agree
Look at the interest in Archeage.
People are in love with the concept, but how it will turn out it's another matter.
But the desire of more immersive MMOs is there, since te market is already saturated with casual MMOs which looks all so similar to each other, looking back to the good old days looks a big jump forward in my view.
I think most of us are hoping for something along the lines of EQ1 (themepark/sandbox hybrid). And seeing as that choices for a hybrid are well...EQ1 and umm maybe Vanguard (not sure that VG really has any sandbox elements though) I would say there is a big hole to fill in the MMO market.
I want them to take the promise of EQ1, and fulfill it.
What drew me to EQ1 was the (initial) feel of a world similar to pen and paper RPGs. While it ultimately failed to live up to that (at the time) I think EQN could.
What I would like to see:
Quasi-sand box. Give me content, dungeons, and other Theme-parky like things, but structure them so that I don't feel like I'm following bread crumbs, but am instead stumbling across them. I don't want to walk through a story book, where I'm led to a new area because that's what the story dictates. I want a WORLD where I come across people who need help.
DYNAMIC WORLD. One of my biggest problems with EQ1, I could go back today (maybe haven't kept up on the packages) and STILL find the same bad guys in butcherblock, the same named mob, and the exact same Dark Elf Emmisary plotting with them to overthrow the wood elf area... Serioulsy, you'd think after 12 years, someone would've wised up. I don't care if the world is TRULY dynamic, or merely cyclical. There needs to be some changes going on. (Think what GW2 is doing).
Give both valid reasons to Group, and valid paths to solo. However, make the experiences DIFFERENT, I would go so far as to make the advancement between the two playstyles DIFFERENT.
Give back the different racial starting areas, and scatter them around the world. I like the fact that a halfling starts in a different place than a dwarf, and has different areas.
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
I'd like to see them abandon the "?" over the head breadcrumb quest system and go back to the optional text-based system. Maybe its rose tinted glasses, but I thought that was a much more robust and challenging system. Hell even when they added the [key] words I still thought it was better. And some quests with no key words, love it.
"They essentially want to say 'Correlation proves Causation' when it's just not true." - Sovrath