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[Column] EverQuest Next: Day and Night & Good Discussions
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In our latest EverQuest Next column, we take a look at the most recent Community Round Table released by the team and the discussion of day-night cycles. See what we gathered from the video and then head to the comments to offer your thoughts.
In Everquest 1, darkness tended to be really dark, and while the placement of enemies was still the same, not having a light source around made it very difficult to see or navigate, and you could end up creating a bad situation just by stumbling into an enemy without intending to. As the technologies have adapted and tastes of gamers have shifted, however, there’s a decidedly different way of approaching danger as a mechanism.
Read more of Victor Barreiro Jr.'s EverQuest Next: Day and Night & Good Discussions.
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Comments
I have fond memories of DAoC when reading this. There were camps that would either change, or appear depending on the time of day. If you weren't aware of the change, you may wind up in a bad situation.
I love the idea that time of day changes what mobs are out, or their behaviors. I always feel like the night should be a bit more dangerous than the light in games. The freaks come out at night
Night vision was a giant pain in EQ1, and almost every character that didn't have good night vision had to do the quest to get a mask that turned you into a dark elf so you could use their vision..
The few zones that actually became very dangerous at night where nice, but the biggest pain was always pitch black areas..
Human shadowknight was almost like they where playing a joke on you. Pitch black tunnels through invisible walls with almost no directions as a level 1 just to get to your class trainers.
But that's just 1 of many things for what made it feel so rewarding..
Funny they arn't actually doing what the "majority" of the pollers suggested.
Instead (while still good) well get a day night "shuffle", but they arn't making strides to make nighttime actually more dangerous compared to the daytime.
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
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Would you really want to play a game made by committee? Of course this was all just for publicity. I wouldn't mind having the pitch black night or relive kithikorat night. Won't hurt my feelings if it doesn't happen though
No matter how cynical you become, its never enough to keep up - Lily Tomlin
Yeah, but why even do the poll if they already know what they are going to do anyways? It's so stupid and pointless.
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Yeah, I stopped even bothering to vote in the polls, because it's clearly just a PR thing, intended to get attention on the game, and keep people interested, thinking their input means anything.
It seems to be the same thing everytime.
"Option A seemed to be very popular with a majority of the people who gave feedback"
"Yes, Option A definitely seemed to be the favorite"
"Yes, but we're not going with that. We're going to go with Option C instead".
It's like the classic situation where someone asks you for advice on something. You answer them, giving them your advice. They so "No that's not right" and argue with you, to which you reply "Well, then why the hell are you even asking me?" But then, sincerity isn't something I've ever sensed from SOE. As in, literally ever. They're like politicians - saying whatever they can to make you think they care, and then going off and doing their own thing anyway.
If you watched the video about how and why they have polls then you would understand. As they stated Polls are for general out look but they can't give the reasons why you choose that answer. When you answer a poll and you say you are not for something it could mean you don't like the idea or the idea doesn't go extreme enough to be what you want. this is why they have the forums to see what people actual mean.The polls are general anyone can answer a poll which is very useful data BUT it can't answer why you choose your answer and that's where forums come in to play. Both are needed to get a good sense of feedback.
They have stated this many times. They listen to both the polls and the forums to decide what they are going to do. Again polls are general outlook which is why there are answers pretty close. But like anything you need context to fill in why you answered that way.
If I did a poll about pie and I asked if you liked it and 2 different people said no but I didn't ask why then I would just think they hated it. One people said no because it wasn't sweet enough where the second said no because the piece wasn't big enough but they still liked it. In this if you went by the poll only then you would just think everyone hated your pie when in fact they did but it needed some tweeking to their liking is all.
Asking people for feedback on the assumption that they're going to have read/heard/seen some kind of relevant info before hand - especially with no actual reference or requirement to do so - is always a sign of poor planning.
Yes please to real darkness at night and also in places where there are no natural light sources. Make torches and mage-created lighting meaningful.
I think many will find it challenging and rewarding to make special preparations and achieve success in true darkness.
I realize this is not what most players want, e.g. "please give me what I want NOW and make it easy to achieve - oh, and I want to be able to solo all the content within two weeks of release."
SOE - do NOT make the same mistake of catering to those players! The "I want to be a Jedi NOW!" crowd is what killed SWG's original design.
Or at least offer a special "Natural Lighting" server for those who want to experience the challenge of real darkness.
The RT has been seen as a grossly farcical beast shortly after the first polls and commentary came out. The only people following and participating seem to be the diehards
In the absence of substance, let's give distractions.
LoL I remember trying to get to my corpse many a time in blackburrow as a blind barbarian shaman. Was damn near impossible . I quickly learned to kill a firebeatle along the way.
They don't ask us everything. This would be pointless. If ten people discuss they hear out everyone and make a decision. The polls are such 'one' vision put into a discussion. This means it could turn the tide in a certain way or it could be the opposite of the view of the devs and will be ignored eventually. We don't build their game, we only tell them what we think.
I am sure they only do polls of thinks they would like to hear what we think. This does not mean it will happen this way or the poll is totally void.
What you just described does in fact make the polls totally void. "If the developers were going to do what the polls wanted them to do anyways, then the developers look like heroes, but if not it's because they have their reasons."
Keep believing that my friend...
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I have always felt that devs that say they are listening are pretending and just using it as a marketing tool.I personally don't like any change in creatures from night and day aside from them perhaps showing up or not.SOe likes to have guards in their towns,so why would people be afraid to come out at night sort of makes no sense.
Here is a simple question,if the majority said they did not want cash shop anymore,do you honestly think Soe would stop using it and revert to a sub fee?I say no way,they are not going to scrap that system as they no longer get a large support for their games,so they rather get more money from less people.
If the majority said they want higher end graphics,do you think they would do it?I again say no way,they already have an idea of what they want to do with this game.How this always works to their advantage is they will ALWAYS do something that was probably talked about by a few people,so it appears they were listening.
Looking solely at EQ2,i got no indication SOE was listening to anyone on any ideas.
I even followed closely that first Women they hired from a college program, that PR idea they pulled a few years back.She created a sort of night club idea for the game,but in the end all SOE did was critique her idea and ended up giving them what they already wanted,not what she wanted.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Everquest 1 did day and night VERY well; much better than any game today... kithicor... *shivers*
DAOC was nerveracking at night as well; enemies lurking behind trees etc.
Personally disagree with the direction that day and night won't be the same feeling as EQ1 as they expect people to function, night time in the original EQ gave an incredible atmospheric feeling, Garry Newman has done the same in Rust and it brings back that feeling, Make it dark and people will improvise to function, either travel round in a group or be extra cautious.
please SOE learn that making the game more challenging will keep people hooked, i really hope this is no carebear MMORPG.