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My thoughts on Everquest Next so far...
dzoni87
Member Posts: 541
Hello everyone
Ive been pretty excited when i saw the SOE Live show. Right after it, i googled a bunch of things and lurked trough these and couple of other forums for a while. Here are just my couple of thoughts.
Let me begin with cosmetic design. I am actually fine with it. It reminds me a bit more on EQII rather than EQ, but it is fine. Still, those overextended emotes and expressions may not be everyones cup of tea, but that is for here to stay. And, lets face it, photorealism wouldnt be the EQs design way. No matter how much you saw EQ or EQII as a SkyrimOblivionFarcry 3 lookalike, they were never actually like that. Yes, those two were a little bit serious than this one, but they still had some cartoonfairy tale flavor to it.
Second, i like that they took a semi-sandbox approach by removing levels and taking a more explorationhorizontal progress design. I love idea that you would be able to actually find all the classes, eventhough i will definatelly use different characters for different archetypes, purely for roleplaying sake. My only worry is how will raiders/endgamers (which seems to be majority of MMORPG players) react to non-raiding endgame approach (i actually expect a lot of rage because people will expect themeparkverticall progression MMO and they will be dissapointed).
I also like a destructible environmets and multileveled (minecraft-like) map. However, i'd like to see how much should we be able to bring our own content from Landmark into the world of Norrath. I'd like to have my own house in-game and being able to upgrade it and defend it from bad guys andor deuchebag players 
As for combat, i am perfectly fine with it. Really, i dont mind it. Hell i even played Oblivion, Diablo and many more games with pure and simple left and right click combat and i was ok. Actually, i never even liked those UI's in MMORPG where you could see only like 20% of your screen, due to UI with 20000 buttons. Anyway, there is one thing i am concerned about. They talked so much about that "advanced A.I.", but there is also one thing that even GW2 suffered from and even that A.I. might not fix that. I dont want the mass of players being able to zerg everything. I am yet to see how will it work against the zerg of players. EQ, for instance, had a plenty of hard open world bosses, which even required a 50+ players to participate. I desperatelly hope that EQN will be like that, with all this multileveled world approach.
All things being said, there is one thing that nothing has been talked about and i am also eager to see. What kind of PvP approach will they have. I hope desperatelly for an open world PvP, even if its faction-based. Especially if they said there will be those rallying calls and player able to help bad guys. Even if this dont happen, there can be tons of options used with this buildable/destructible world and two factions that existed in previous games, for world PvP.
Bottom line: i know that this game is not everyone's cup of tea, especially for those people that expected EQ with "shader model 3" graphics. I wont even lie, when i said that i even expected dramatic changes to the game in comparison with earlier games when i saw EQ Next title (if they wanted the third part of the same game, they would name it simply "Everquest III" and have done with it). I waited long enough for another sandbox (even if partially) game, which doesnt have a space ships. I hope they deliver at least 50% of those promised things.
As for the rest of you, I can say only one. At least, give the game a chance. It will gonna be f2p anyway, meaning it wont cost you nothing to try it out. You can read a thousand of biased or one-sided reviews which praise or throw hate at the game. At the end of the day, you are the one who need to bring up the conclusion about it. Heck, for one time, try to bite "Pixar design" or "5 button combat", you might get pleasantly surprised.
Sorry for my bad english. See you in Landmark this winter, hopefully, Dzoni87
Main MMO at the moment: Guild Wars 2
Waiting for: Pathfinder Online
Comments
It is still better than any other mmos public quest system. You can build or repair structures from resources you gather, over time it can turn into a fortress or a village. Which then can lead to sieges where enemies can even send in small stealth squads to attack from destroying walls where no one is looking or even build tunnels underground and get in through there because of the emergent AI system. And the whole event can last for 1-3 months. And in that time devs are already planning on making an entire new event thats can take place somewhere else in the world. Each of these events wont just reset and do the same things all over again. And I heard the devs say that in quests players can choose to approach the quests however they want, like you can help the villagers or you can help the orcs. But im not sure if that applies to rallying calls too. If so than it is kind of pvp in a different kind of approach.
Some of us would rather not come home from a real job, only to find ourselves 'playing' another. I don't want to be an architect, engineer, miner, etc, etc, etc. So the whole build/repair structure thing is really pointless and not for people that actually work for a living. Saying that, the free to play model fits that sense perfectly, all the little kiddies will come to play their lion king game while their parents relax and try to find immersion, not a job, in another game.
SOE already said that the public quest system will respond to how the players advance it. Each outcome will be different on each server, all depending on how the event was handled. After the servers have been online for a certain amount of time, each one will have areas which are different than the next servers because of the players.
SOE did state they are doing exactly what you are mad at them for not doing.
You won't have to, I don't think. You can leave that up to others who do enjoy that play style. And believe it or not, lots of them have real day jobs too. It's more a question of what a player likes to do in their MMO.
If you're a Raid type of gamer, just doing that and selling things to your game community is a useful social endeavor. At least I'm hoping (and pretty sure) this is what they are after.
Once upon a time....
Wrong.. I suggest you watch the last EQN panel .. It was explicitly asked "Can players effect Rally Calls in a different way?'.. The panel asked him, in what form.. The guy said, "be Mr bad guy and make it fail".. The panel told him.. NO, you can NOT do that.. The told him that would be same as grieving and they won't allow for it.. The panel gave the example that if the Rally Quest ask for wood to complete a project, a player could slow down that progression by cutting down every tree he sees.. BUT that will only slow it down, it will not STOP IT.. Now maybe if if everyone on the server ignores that call, then sure the rally call fails, not because of someone being bad, but due from lack of interest..
See heres what the problem is sir: "Second, i like that they took a semi-sandbox approach by removing levels and taking a more explorationhorizontal progress design."
Thats not sandbox. thats not even semi sandbox. The term refers to being able to do whatever you want. To be creative and build (or not) and play the way you want to play. When we, the refugees of mmos from another time, hear the word sandbox, it means something very specific to us. Its become a sick joke from developers to use the word knowing full well they are pulling our coat tails and really only giving us a tiny piece of the pie. They are "using" the word to build hype, and this is pretty much the last straw for me. Im about one more disappointment away from starting a kickstarter fund to build the game that probably around 500,000 of us want to play. The rest of you can have this.
Hope to see you in Landmark as well. Please don't pay attention to all the negativity from some of our cynical friends. There are still plenty of us here that like the new direction of the game and will play it whole-heatedly.
"Youre in our world now!"
I am on the fence.
lol
Players can choose not to engage in the rally call at all, and yes effectively STOP the progression of the rally call. What the panel was saying is that if a person or group of people wanted to actively progress the rally call, then there is no way for a single person to stop their active involvement in progressing the rally call.
As I understand it, rally calls will NOT progress without player involvement. If a rally call is progressing they also said that there is NOT an avenue to REVERSE the rally call. Reversing and stopping are two different actions.
For example - Halas sends out a rally call to build the city. Server 1 jumps right on it and builds this magnificent city. Server 2 waits a bit, goofs around and finally builds a village, but never builds Halas into a glorious city. Server 3 completely ignores the rally call forever and no city of Halas is built on server 3. I can see all of those being played out in EQN and it has nothing to do with griefing.
I know MOS.. I was not saying everyone would get the glorious city.. I said the only way it doesn't get built is "lack of interest" .. It was my last sentence
But it is a programmed event with different stages of ending, but it's still linear.. Players don't truly have the freedom to effect the direction of the event.. Let me give you an example of my thinking..
Halas sends out call.. Server A starts building with wood,, as so does Server B..
Then on the next stage the call GIVES the servers different options A) more wood
stone or C) ore
From here depending on the community, Halas takes shape in 1 of 3 directions.. This can even go further dependiing on the next stage.. So in the end, There might be 9 or more final outcomes.. or even more assuming the server doesn't get to the last stage..
What can I say, I like options
So as your example , Halas could end up either a glorious wood city, or stone, or ore, or a combination of the 2 or 3.. While the call is active, the community to check the progress to see what everyone is doing.. You may be a stone fan, but see that "ore" is getting more love, so you and your friends start collecting more stone.. 
This game will be good if it is dangerous and not faceroll easy in the open world. Requiring thought/preparation to travel. We have no details on the difficulty of the PvE at this very early point in it's development. Saying I love or hate the game is simply impossible at this point in time.
First i'd like to thank everyone for replies
Anyway... being someone that have played Ultima Online a lot, I know what a sandbox game is. Of course, there IS reason why i called this one semi-sandbox and not a "sandbox" like SOE would like to call it. Because it seems that EQN will have some of sandbox elements into it, by doing away with levels, making crafting more complex, ability to explore whichever part of map you desire if you can get your head out alive that is, making whatever crossover with Landmark (housefarmcastlewhatever building).
Anyway, sandbox MMOs being largely centered around a PvP, im eager to see how will this fit in PvE-based world (hence the reason i called it 'semi-sandbox')
P.S. If you are looking for the "true sandbox" MMO project at Kickstarter, i warmly suggest to look at Pathfinder Online. But thats for another topic
P.P.S. That Rallying Call thing is so confusing to me still. I guess i will have to wait and see how it turns out to be, just like i said.
Main MMO at the moment: Guild Wars 2
Waiting for: Pathfinder Online
I got used to MMORPG.COM after all these years, so its kinda ok
Main MMO at the moment: Guild Wars 2
Waiting for: Pathfinder Online