EQ Never

Big Flex_sl said:

I agree 100%, If newbs are jumping out of an AC130 onto the back of a dragon rather than running away from two bats, no bueno.

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I think you are reading it wrong.

Rallying Cries have tiers to them according to the task. The higher the tier, the more difficult the task. Each tier completion doesn't unlock a new tier, rather they all occur simultaneously.

Dropping newbies in a RC is EXACTLY what you want... unless while you are on the frontier trying to established a city or an outpost, your tier 3 character wants to be doing all the tier 1 crushing of snakes. Youd rather be crushing Undead resistance and ambushing Orc raiding parties... not collecting wood and killing low level goblins.

5 tiers and no lvls. Got to thinking about how tiers relate to mobs, zones and layered zones could be a possibility of outcomes and something funny hit me.

Beside the fact that a player that has been in the game for a year can just throw lvl 2 or 3 tier gear at a 10min old player to get them up just enough to help fight. The bigger laugh was what if player tier and mob tiers are like paper/rock/scissors.

Meaning the player at tier 1 is scissors and mobs of tier 1 are paper. Finding tier 2 mobs could mean you will have a hard time fighting give they ar now scissor being equal. Player hits tier 2 and unlocks rock, hits tier 3 mobs and again runs into a problem...
Or at least some variation of this but the funny part is that what if it isnt rock/paper/scissor because it isnt just 3 tiers but 5 tier. What if its Rock/Paper/Scissors/Lizard/Spock!

Getting tiers and other classes could unlock other counters to mobs or having a combo of things would unlock counters to blocks and attacks. This is a loose idea but thinking they are going to have something in place as to why you want to get more classes and tier lvls besides just flashy fighting styles. Thinking you could just tier up to 5 on a single class and get all counters and blocks or get other classes to help with this. Majority of having other classes maybe for utility but also combat counter/blocks.

DMK_sl said:

The thing that blows my mind is how pumped up everyone is already getting for this.. It looks SO early in development that it still has the chance of being vaporware. They could literally scrap the whole thing and start again....again. This game won't release until early 2015 and I guarantee it will be nearly a completely new game by then except for maybe the engine. There are games that haven't even been announced yet that will release months before this even gets a beta.

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To be honest what has me pumped is the potential of what they want to do. It's something big and new, and the genre needs a rebuilding of the foundation instead of the fresh coats of paint that the last 6 years of releases delivered. Wildstar for example looks promising for a month or two of fun but in the end its just another coat of paint.

I think SOE has nothing but napkin designs right now, and wont be able to show anything related to EQN for the rest of the year. People looking forward to Gamescon and PAX will be dissapointed. But the potential is there.

Landmark is probably further along, but it should be. It has to be out a year before EQN. So considering they have nothing solid right now they do have every chance you can think of to sink this ship in the next two years. I guess I am an optimist as far as this project is concerned. If they fuck it up and at the next SOE live it becomes clear that they are backpedaling from their grand plans into DIKU clone territory, this drops from "the next big thing" to "just another DIKU clone" on my radar.

Edit: that this is an EQ title is a downside from my point of view. I would prefer if it was a new IP, because the good points about the project have nothing to do with EQ. I guess SOE considers it an upside for PR reasons or they would've gone with a new IP.

So yeah..

Heres a couple of ideas from reading the tea leaves on how storybricks and changing environments could interplay within the game. Im thinking we will see something pretty similar to this:

Halas has been built but has been pretty quiet for a while. Devs decide to drop a little something, or maybe its programmed to spawn 3 months after Halas is built, either way..

Lady Vex spawns, and inhabits/creates a cave system far outside Halas. Immediately she uses compulsion on evil species living nearby and enslaves them. This changes their behavior and they aren't interested in waylaying merchants, but in attacking halas with abandon or guarding her lair with their lives. But not only that, She becomes a spawn center, and she immediately spawns 4 lieutenants, they scatter and begin spawning various lower bosses, (who then spawn peons). The Lieutenants have large goals each about building outposts and armies to attack Halas with. The Lts have a 1 week respawn rate, the lower bosses have a 24 hr respawn and the peons reappear from the lower bosses every 2 hours and begin their tasks anew. Lady Vex has no respawn. Once she is killed, she is gone from the game, but the threat to Halas is over. If the Lts are allowed to continue to build and prepare long enough unopposed, Lady Vex will lead an army to attack and destroy Halas.

So your Tier 1s will be defending Halas vs. attacks from suicidal lowbie mobs, your tier 2s will be disrupting the Lts outposts, your tier 3s will be killing the Lts, and finally a large and powerful enough group of tier 4s will assault Lady Vexs lair and kill her, stopping the spawning of invasion forces.

This, I believe is what SoE has in mind.

Make it Lady Vox, and I'll be there with sword in hand.

I called 2015 release 10 mins after SOE live.

Anyone taking bets?

Vapor Ware at this point.

Goes over that new massively article. Not bad.

Furious_sl said:

I called 2015 release 10 mins after SOE live.

Anyone taking bets?

Vapor Ware at this point.

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It's not gonna be 2014. The early 2014 assumptions were all based on Landmark I guess. They talk about showing more at SOE live '14 that alone puts its Q3, and thats for "showing more" not "release". I think 2015 is most likely but might take longer?

Vapor ware depends on your definition - for me its vapor ware when I am sure the project is not going to release at all. This game will release, it isnt vapor ware. Wether it lives up to being a next gen title is undecided, but its the first that deserves being called next gen in a decade.

Furious_sl said:

I called 2015 release 10 mins after SOE live.

Anyone taking bets?

Vapor Ware at this point.

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I already stated 400 pages ago I thought the possible release window was August 2014 to June 2015 depending on how well EQN/L does. But I'll narrow that down to end of the year 2014.

tad10_sl said:

I already stated 400 pages ago I thought the possible release window was August 2014 to June 2015 depending on how well EQN/L does. But I'll narrow that down to end of the year 2014.

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The question now is, do I wait to build a new computer until closer to EQN, or do I build a new computer sooner-ish so I can try out Landmark?

Furious_sl said:

I called 2015 release 10 mins after SOE live.

Anyone taking bets?

Vapor Ware at this point.

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I wont be shocked if it's out around April 2014, depending on how successful EQN/L is. With EQN/L being out later this year and a good likely hood I would bet Nov 2013. The world seems completed (voxel mapped), looks like most all player characters would be at this point except for the animations. Basically think Minecraft create mode. You dont need mobs, fighting animations or AI. Have simple animations for movement and crafting, done!

Most of what I have seen or read it's most all automated at this point. Much like gutters on the side of a house to direct water from rain. They can just add animation from Mocaps/etc to fit the models later. Once the models are done and the animations are done they can plug and play. Seems weapons, armor and animations can be switched between models with ease now with no clipping problems like the old days. Making 1 piece of armor vs 8 of the same to match each model type.

The world I would bet will be empty at this point, we will be given a released game with nothing fully done in respect of RC's and dungeons. They will add those on the fly with their "Quake" resets as things are completed. They will plan to have players explore to take up the time for them to release content. EQN/L will give them the content for ruins, building and towns to be released after the game is out in slow unlocks (POI/RC).

The world seems like its done, its voxel with a basic placement map. Only the player models need to be done for EQN/L to be released. So character creator and done. If they have most or all mob models completed, finished weapon animations and scripting for AI....they can release EQN. The core building and landscape wont take that much to do with planned unlocks. This will give them time to get something built for X spots as needed.

What I am worried about is water. I havent seen anything with water or swimming, I think that is a block for them at this point with model animations and the voxel system. It has lava in that cave but cant see if it flows or just static. I really think water is being a royal pain for them in the voxel system at this point!

But to recap. My guess:
-EQN/L in Nov 2013.
-EQN Apr 2014
-Release will suffer like other games, no mounts, no swimming or very limited, no player housing or problems with porting to your EQN/L plot
-Limited or no content and dungeons. RC's are a generic wall construct with different voxel map overlays from local materials. Grey rocks = grey rock walls...etc.
-Time sink will be players exploring to TRY to find something that isnt there yet till a "Quake" happens that puts in content.

If EQN/L isnt released in Nov 2013, I would suspect its the water problem in the voxel system and might be out Apr 2014 With EQN out in Sept 2014.

The basics of this game is Minecraft, its simple really. They can release a half finished game and plug in content patches later. It wont be as visible as much as other games due to it's core nature. They dont have to have a completed game on release for dungeons and towns, the lore supports this and player will just bend to it.

Cash shop I would guess will allow for bigger bags, mules, wagons, more EQN/L plot space, portals and offline bazaar for mats and finished items like they stated with selling built structures from EQN/L. Plus plot utilities like Mailbox, delivery service from bazaar and mat/item limit unlocks.

Lleauaric_sl said:

So yeah..

Heres a couple of ideas from reading the tea leaves on how storybricks and changing environments could interplay within the game. Im thinking we will see something pretty similar to this:

Halas has been built but has been pretty quiet for a while. Devs decide to drop a little something, or maybe its programmed to spawn 3 months after Halas is built, either way..

Lady Vex spawns, and inhabits/creates a cave system far outside Halas. Immediately she uses compulsion on evil species living nearby and enslaves them. This changes their behavior and they aren't interested in waylaying merchants, but in attacking halas with abandon or guarding her lair with their lives. But not only that, She becomes a spawn center, and she immediately spawns 4 lieutenants, they scatter and begin spawning various lower bosses, (who then spawn peons). The Lieutenants have large goals each about building outposts and armies to attack Halas with. The Lts have a 1 week respawn rate, the lower bosses have a 24 hr respawn and the peons reappear from the lower bosses every 2 hours and begin their tasks anew. Lady Vex has no respawn. Once she is killed, she is gone from the game, but the threat to Halas is over. If the Lts are allowed to continue to build and prepare long enough unopposed, Lady Vex will lead an army to attack and destroy Halas.

So your Tier 1s will be defending Halas vs. attacks from suicidal lowbie mobs, your tier 2s will be disrupting the Lts outposts, your tier 3s will be killing the Lts, and finally a large and powerful enough group of tier 4s will assault Lady Vexs lair and kill her, stopping the spawning of invasion forces.

This, I believe is what SoE has in mind.

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i have a problem with this whole scenario because when i played the original EQ, i was never FORCED into doing anything. when i logged in, i chose what i wanted to do; dungeon crawl, look for rare spawns, help others, travel somewhere off the beaten path, try and figure out a quest, just fuck around for a few hours, whatever. what they are describing with EQN, it just seems like they're telling you what you're going to do when you log in. these rallying cries just seem like a GM event that's always happening, which takes away the mystique and fun of GM events (which were rare, which in turn made them more interesting). the rallying cries just sound like what they did with RIFT, which wasn't very exciting or interesting at all. it really just seems like sony is trying to force what they consider to be fun down our throats, instead of just giving the players a world in which to interact and create our own fun.

Dr Neir_sl said:

I wont be shocked if it's out around April 2014

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I'm expecting EQN to release no later than next summer. I'm thinking EQN:L's release is essentially the beginning of EQN alpha. I don't think SOE is going to wait until 2015 after repeatedly telling us that they didn't want to share info until they had a huge lead on competitors. My opinion, obviously.

The purpose of the reveal was to focus on telling us what is different about EQN, so I don't think we really know how far along they are yet. According to Georgeson, we will be receiving new information at Gamescom next week and at Pax the week after that.

Itzena_sl said:

So you're assuming that a game with one starting city and a game with a dozen starting cities is going to have identical volume of content in each city? Interesting.

Dumb as a rock, butinteresting.

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5 cities collecting bear asses> 1 city collecting bear asses, I guess you're right.

zzeris_sl said:

Everything in bold can be done at any time.They've already said that you don't need to participate in RC. RCs are for players that want to do that content.

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yeah, i understand that. i guess my point is these rallying cries seem to be tied to the storybricks aspect of the game, which seems to be the focal point of EQN. so instead of just creating a world and letting the players create the interaction within the world (and their own experiences), it's going to mainly be about these RC's which are going to drive what happens in the game and how players interact within the world. the difference may be subtle, but it's significant.

2014 early Christmas time. They will pump it up at soe live they have year+ for animation combat quest stuff while players are building structures. Share holders won't wait 2 years.

rolx_sl said:

2014 early Christmas time. They will pump it up at soe live they have year+ for animation combat quest stuff while players are building structures. Share holders won't wait 2 years.

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this.