EverQuest II: April 29th AMAA Recap
Here is a recap of the Tuesday, April 29 EQ2 AMAA Reddit session!
The EverQuest II team spent several hours on Reddit answering players' questions on Tuesday, April 29, 2014. The session ran from 5am PT through 2pm PT. Our six-page recap, which includes many of the answered questions, is available after the jump.
We are representing the EQ2 Development Team for this AMAA! That means Ask Me Almost Anything! Do you have a question you’ve been dying to ask us? Well, now is your chance! What are you waiting for? Ask away!
We’ll be answering questions from 5AM – 2 PM PDT on April 29th, 2014 while we have extended downtime on all of our servers, forums and sites due to All Access integration and a new Game Update.
The only Reddit Users representing the EQ2 Development Team are as listed below: (Note: Anyone impersonating an SOE Developer will not be tolerated.)
- Margaret Krohn - Luperza - Community Manager
- Omeed Dariani - Omeedd - Senior Brand Manager
- Adam Key – Adamsphere – Brand Manager
- Holly Longdale - WindstalkerEQ2 - Senior Producer
- Akil Hooper - LyndroSOE - Creative Director
- Kyle Valee - Kander_SOE - Lead Designer
- Nathan McCall - Kaitheel - EQ2 Senior Game Designer
- Tim Heydelaar - HaohmaruEQ2 - Art Director
- Daniel Hosford - Bunji_SOE - Build Master
- Jennifer Chan - JChanSOE - Technical Director
- Justin Michael - JamissEQ2 - Programmer II
- Douglas VanDerveer - Endymion_SOE – Programmer
Q:"Could I coerce you into feeding me spoilers on the next expansion, or dare I ask; raid content?"
A: "We typically always do raid content in our expansions. :) We'll start talking about the expansion soon (tm). Early May, in fact. Also, to your earlier question...we know what we're doing for EQ2 well into next year and we have our weekly updates to make sure we're always addressing issues and adding content. We're extremely committed for a long time to come!"
Q: "Any hints on the next expansion's theme? Will the level cap finally raise to 100 with it?"
A: "You may want to tune into the next EQ2 Insider livestream on http://www.twitch.tv/everquest2. ;) It'll be May 7th, 2014 at 2PM PDT! (We'll have a YT vod up if you can't watch it live.)"
A: "We gave you hints last year at SOE Live! We showed pictures!"
Followup: The teaser pictures shown during last year's SOE Live expansion panel were of dinosaurs (another here from the art panel).
Q: "The AA template facility is excellent, totally love it! But will we ever have more flexibility to, for example, remove an early point you placed without having to restart the whole template (or taking it right back to that point)?"
A: "We discussed allowing that. Because there's so many dependencies with the variety of AAs we have, it's incredibly risky and a costly process in terms of character calculations/stat updates/spells and so on and saving your character to the server. We may revisit the AA window in the future, but we won't be changing it in the near future."
Q: "1) When are you going to fix the match making system? Its been broken too long (Other pvp fixes are going in which is why i'm asking) 2) Dungeon finder? Myth bust this one for us, will we have an updated version soon (tm) ? 3) How long before you eventually implement a full blown SC shop, stat items and the lot for all servers (if you are eventually going to, rip the plaster off in one stroke and get it over with. 4) Will there ever be a new race? Freeblood are too sparkly. 5) When's the next expansion (have i missed information on that?)"
A: "1) We are working on it right now. One of our Sr. Programmers is tasked on it full time. Once we get the code fixed, then we'll start working on (2) Dungeon Finder and improving its features so it's more useful. The original design doc is under review right now. 3) OMG! Yuck! We aren't considering it now. Our team isn't fond of the "pay to win" idea. Conveniences, yes. 4) I'M NOT TELLING. (Anything is possible? Heh.) 5. We're almost ready to talk about it. You haven't missed anything yet."
Q: "Hello, can you give an update on the improved Dungeon Finder / Group Builder? Including when it might make its way to the live servers?"
A: "As I mentioned above, we have Dave Kish working on the matchmaking code now. The first task was to create an environment to adequately test and evaluate the issues that are reported on Live and we have tracked a lot down. We will let the community know anytime we have something to report, like when we'd help to test new code on Beta, etc. This is one of our highest priorities."
Q: "During the last few years of EQ2 you've been implementing new mechanics while removing the old ones. You revamped the stats system, changed the game flow. We've really enjoyd the "old" stuff tho. I know that you've said before that it's nearly impossible to introduce progression/legacy servers for EQ2. But maybe there is a way to do something interesting like that? Like an event where players could try old mechanics and stuff? Or all of it will remain just dreams?"
A: "This idea comes up in our team meetings every few months as far as launching a special rules server. I'll be honest. We don't have an original version of the game we can release given all the updates over 10 years, so that's never going to happen. That said, a special rules server of some kind could happen, but we want to focus on the servers we have right now as far as fixing matchmaker, building new content, etc. New servers are a LOT of work."
Q: "EQ2 was always a game full of stories for me. Every quest and story was complex and interesting to follow. And those wonderful heritage quests really made the difference between regualar MMO and EQ2. The question is will we see more of this types of quests in the future? Will this kind of quests be available in EQN? I'm little scared because of recent expantion CoE where the overall "theme" were not so serious and interesting as before. Or should I blame localization for it?"
A: "I can't speak for EQN, but as for EQ2, we are focusing on adventures for heroes that are challenging and meaningful. Heritage quests are part of that. We've released 3 already this year for free (as of today's update). The Tears of Veeshan expansion brought you up close to dragons, which are stories we love to tell. And the story of our world is really evolving and changing. There's some epic tales coming your way. Some really good evil stuff too...which I'm a fan of. :)"
Q: "Question for programmer mates over there. We've been asking for "borderless window" mode or "windowed fullscreen" for a quite while (6 years?). Will it ever be possible to play EQ2 with this mode?"
A: "Borderless window/windowed fullscreen is not on our list of stuff to do, but we'll discuss it"
Q: "Is there a setting that we can use to throttle the bandwidth that the Launcher will use while patching? Gets a bit annoying if it's a large patch and it hogs it all up!"
A: "It's a good suggestion. I haven't heard any plans to do that in the past (and the group that programs the Launcher is very busy) - but I'll suggest it. :)"
