EverQuest II: April 29th AMAA Recap
Here is a recap of the Tuesday, April 29 EQ2 AMAA Reddit session!
Q:
- Itemization was changed drastically in ToV to its current state (which I love) were there any ideas for itemization that were not implemented that in hindsight seemed silly to propose in the first place?
- Are there any plans in work to add a cross server dungeon finder?
- If there is a new raid zone implemented (a la SG) will it be parallel to ToV in difficulty and drops, or a natural progression after guilds have cleared all 3 halls?
- Will we be seeing more fabled zones this xpac, if so more KoS or the next step?
A:
- Our design team has so many critical thinkers, the really silly stuff usually gets caught right out of the gate. Obviously, a few mistakes do get made, but generally this team doesn't pitch silly. Creative, yes. Xelgad has been experimenting with some new mechanics for the future which has been exciting.
- We'd really like to and that is on our list for the future, but it will be a good while. That functionality will require a major overhaul to how the back end of our game works (i.e. it's not like our battlegrounds functionality).
- We're releasing a Temple of Veeshan raid zone next month. It will be part of progression with Temple of Veeshan and have some very unique items we'll be talking about in a livestream the first week of May. Luperza has details on that. :p Kander (Kyle Vallee) will give details then on the itemization. We're still tweaking right now so I don't want to lie about where the items fit in progression (i.e. parallel or post ToV)
- We won't be doing a big Fabled release again this year, but at least one dungeon will be released.
Q: "My main character is fully geared with master level abilities, will i be able to use those if I tried the game as a F2P. Is there a table showing what perks we would get for subscribing (as opposed to f2p or grandfathered in silver)"
A: "We'll have a new web page (it's live for me atm, but it may be because I'm on the internal network) that shows the perks for members: www.everquest2.com/membership. We also loosened restrictions on F2P so you can wear all gear. Depending on how you got your masters, you may be restricted. If you paid for research with SC, you can use your spells. If you got them through in-game content, you'll be restricted to Adept. Expert for Silver. And you can unlock them individually through SC item unlockers or by subscribing."
Q: "With ToV I've found myself reforging a lot, I (believe) we currently do not have the Reforger guild hall amenity. Is this something that could be introduced?"
A: "We struggle with ideas like this...which means I'm about to give you a non-answer answer. :) First, guild halls are awesome. Second, the more general amenities we add to guild halls means players visit cities even less than they do now. We like that reforgers take people to the cities. At the same time we want to keep the game fun and convenient. So...the answer is...not in the near future, but it's on the list of things we may consider."
Q: "Will the sale of player decorated houses be coming back for development? Will Everquest II be offering any kind of built in design tools for Player Studio in the future like Everquest Next Landmark?"
A: "Selling houses through Player Studio raised a lot of issues for the creators and made it very complex for buyers in terms of understanding what you bought. Challenges have been around how to value a house, what comes with it and how, and whether we package up an entire house and sell it, or allow you to sell templates -- which have very different values. We didn't like how either worked. We aren't focusing on it currently, but may address it again in the future. We will probably come to you (our decorators) for your thoughts again."
"I'm fairly certain we won't have built in design tools for Player Studio like Landmark has. Very different technology and business model. :)"
Q:
- (please please please!) Will there be an option for a smaller guild hall, or open air one without the good/evil themes to them? I would spend 10000 SC in a blink to be able to convert any number of current prestige homes to a guild house, complete with paying normal upkeep and status. The old "skins" (if you will) on the guild halls, if customizable like Freeport and Qeynos homes, would even be awesome. A guild hall skinned in New Halas style would be drool-worthy!
- Please consider offering small increments of SC for achievements like other unnamed and less awesome games. It would certainly lure me to buy more SC on my own, and I buy plenty plus three gold-soon-to-be-all-access accounts as well.
- Is there a way to download the updates ahead of time, like from test or something? I am unfortunately restricted to a very small amount of bandwidth per month due to living in the boonies (great lake scene, crap net service). I have 'free' download times between midnight and 5am central time. Updates usually hit me about 5 hours too late, and I certainly don't want to wait 14 hours to download more! That said, how extensive and big is the download today?
A:
- It's funny. We've been discussing this a bit with the High Keep prestige guild hall that we were going to put out this week. We are holding it back for a bit as we weren't happy with how it was acquired by guilds so we're adjusting. We'll see how popular it is and consider more options.
- Interesting idea. Probably not in the near future. :)
- We do have art assets in our update so it's a bit bigger than usual, but not by much. You shouldn't notice too much of a difference between today and our weekly updates. That said, if it's slow, it might be because all of our SOE games are going to be going live around the same time... :)
Q: "Recently we have seen some very nice mounts added to the game - flying squirrels, meatbeasts, and most recently bunnies. Unfortunately these have all been Station Cash exclusive items. Any chance that going forward we would see a poor-man's version of these types of things added as in-game rewards vs. shop? Perhaps making the in-game ones not as sexzy to still drive shop purchases, but some form available as rewards via playing?"
A: "Typically we do put versions in the content unless we don't want to see mass amounts of them (like flying pink cow-raptors). And we feel it's important for the players to get awesome looking stuff in-game. We'll continue to put mounts in the game. :)"
A: "We don't have any specific plans to add these from in game rewards. To be honest I don't think the particular mounts you mentioned fit well to come from content. I'll chat with some folks though, I wouldn't be opposed to having some of these as options for loyalty points, but don't expect to see them as quest rewards or world drops."
Q: "This is an Art question. Currently you can plant a guild banner, the little flag on the banner looks a little... weird. However, the recent claimable in-game flags from pre-ordering Landmark look excellent! Any chance of a little upgrade to the sad little blue flag?"
A: "What we need to do is update the standards to show your guilds heraldry, like the backpacks/tapestries and possibly take on the base tint as well. We'll take a look and if feasible to weasel in, you can rest assured they'd animate and pop like the newer flags."
Q: "I have heard rumors about a fabled deathtoll, which I know you cant confirm or deny."
A: "RUMORS! You're right. The design team is working on a fabled version of Deathtoll. :)"
Q: "What would it take to get a quest, to break the buffs from the pow cloaks and add them to classes permanently. Obviously this would assume some of the clickies get a overhaul."
A: "I was telepathically mostly correct. The pow effects will be made available in alternate ways later this year, but will likely always be tied to items in some way."
