Everquest AMA Answered!

I felt the answer about a potential FV TLP server was interesting. Maybe that means one won't be coming next cycle. It's odd because I don't think it's such a bad thing and it'd surely be a hit. Sure, it'd attract farmers and RMTers but there'd be so much more to potentially farm that I honestly think regular players would come out ahead, especially after classic.

a_skeleton_03 said:

3) Is there any interest in bringing back a modernized 'Classic EverQuest' similar to what World of Warcraft is doing - ie; keeping mechanics the same for the era instead of guestimating them?

Alan: Um… where have you been for the last eight or so years? We have chosen to keep some things as they are on progression servers because removing them would suck, either for us or for players. Or for both. We like the compromise we have made. We may make further adjustments, but we think we're in a good place with them now.

Jonathan: EverQuest can’t be exactly like it was in 1999 for multiple reasons. 1. That code and data is gone. 2. The people that worked on that code and data are gone. 3. Even if we had a perfectly accurate recreation of the original game, it wouldn’t run on modern computers. 4. Even if the game would run on modern computers, this would reintroduce thousands of bugs that we’ve fixed over the past two decades.

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Meh. At least my work won't be made irrelevant any time soon.

Amazes me how all these devs think EQ is like, just a bunch of lore or something and don't care one bit about mechanics. Blizzard really is doing a much better job with their Classic server; granted they have 100x the resources.

They actually answered my half-troll question, fucking amazing.

Thanks to them and thank you, a_skeleton_03.

The argument about creating content that few will see happened every expansion I worked on.. It's a real concern. Ultimately though, like Caraker said, today's elite content, is tomorrow's mid-level content, so the decision to go forward with it has always won out..

The designers on EQ currently had nothing to do with the Vex Thal entry nonsense, so getting upset about it with them is pointless. Also, I think it was pretty well proven that the reason the initial blockage was in place was the zone wasn't finished when the expansion launched.

FWIW, the developers on EQ today have given a LARGE portion of their working life to this game.. It's not a stretch to say that 8 hour days simply don't exist on the EQ team, and routinely we worked 60 hour weeks during NON-crunch time.. It's a passion for them (as it was for me). We also worked under the specter that we were simply not the priority for resources at SOE for YEARS. But that never stopped us from doing everything we could to put out as good a game as we possibly could. Sometimes we missed the mark a bit, but more often than not the expansions have been well-received, and enjoyed by our INSANELY loyal playerbase. I've been gone from the team nearly 4 years now, and EQ is still very much a source of pride to me.

Alan - He's an angry curmudgeon, but a brilliant storyteller. He won't admit it publicly, but we really clicked in the content development side of things..
Ed - Numbers genius. You may not like his answers in game-balance/spell questions, but he 100% has the best interest of the game at heart.
Jonathan - The grand overseer of the game. He has arguably the hardest job on the team, because he creates A LOT of content, while at the same time keeping the rest of the team from going off the deep end with dumb/crazy shit.
Jenn - Jenn Chan is the most dedicated engineer I think EQ has ever had, and considering who came before her, that's saying A LOT. Sklug was a genius. Terry Michaels was a genius. Jenn just plain kicks ass, and you have no idea how much thanks you owe her for what she's done for the game. Her coding staff btw, is seriously seriously good. Every. Last. Fucking. One. Of. Them.
Kevin - Fantastic artist. Loves the game too. He and his art team's ability to translate our (designers) incredibly stupid/insane ideas into beautiful art in-game cannot be overstated. He's also one of the nicest guys I've ever worked with.

Holly - EASILY the best producer I've worked with at SOE/DBG. She has an amazing ability to know where to draw the line between driving us, and just leaving us alone to do what we knew howto do. That second part was huge. She takes heat from a lot of players, and truly that's her job, but she's seriously good at her job, and deserves respect for what she's been able to do with the EQ franchise, especially in light of the damage done by Ponytail in the years prior to his (deserved) departure from SOE.

I really enjoyed reading all of the answers. Thanks for putting this all together.

I have to say that the answers given about making NEW content specifically for TLP servers just showed how much of a disconnect the DBG team has with the TLP player base. The person asking the question was right on point in that DBG literally has TWO SEPERATE games when it comes to TLP and LIVE EverQuest.

The answers that were given indicated that the DBG team still thinks that all those people playing on the TLP servers eventually WANT to catch up to the current Live content. While there are some that do, I would wager heavily on there being a vast majority of TLP customers that do NOT want to catch up to the current Live content. They play on TLP servers because they do NOT LIKE WHAT EVERQUEST HAS BECOME OVER THE YEARS. These people play on the TLP servers up until a certain expansion, and then they unsubscribe until another TLP comes along that they are interested in playing on.

DBG should realize they have TWO SEPERATE EverQuest games in TLP and Live. They should set a line in the sand at a particular expansion, and create new expansions for the TLP servers that branch at that point. Those TLP servers would NEVER progress to another expansoin from the LIVE content from that point forward. Instead, they would have new expansions based on an alternate time line that stick to the game mechanics of the expansions prior to that branch in time.

They even have the perfect opportunity in the lore to make this happen. There is plenty of precedent for the Gods to realize their error in allowing Norrathians to enter the Plane of Knowledge (Planes of Power expansion), do some Godly voodoo magic to go back in time to the point right before travel to the Plane of Knowledge was gained, and alter the timeline to make it never happen.

In essence, on a TLP server, the progression should be:

1. Original
2. Ruins of Kunark
3. Scars of Velious
4. Shadows of Luclin
5. *Brand New TLP-only expansion*
6. *Brand New TLP-only expansion*
7. *Brand New TLP-only expansion*
8. ...

TLP-only expansion basics:

• Stick to the game mechanics that made EverQuest special; root, snare, kiting, charm, mez, split pulling, and slow.
• Level cap never goes up beyond 60.
• Expansion power growth based on bane-based weaponry/armor, AAs, spells, and abilities earned while playing through that expansion
• No HP/MP/END inflation. Instead focus on bane-based stats earned in the expansion content via armor, AAs, and buffs
• No stat bloat. Don't introduce all of those new stats on the equiptment like strike through and such. Looking at gear should not be like reading a book. Instead focus these stats in to AAs earned in the expansions' content, and make it bane-based. In other words, gaining 50% strike through in an expansion shouldn't mean you can never gain that stat ever again due to being over powered. Instead, that 50% strike through AA line you earned in expansion 1 is based on werewolf enemies. That makes it to where you can look forward to earning strike through AAs in future expansion as well and the stat is not shut down from group forever going forward.

This is what needs to happen for EverQuest TLP. Instead, the answers we got were along the line of, "if we put new content in for TLP, it will mess up the already existing content at higher levels." No. No it will not. You just have to realize AND ACCEPT that TLP players on average do NOT want to play the existing content at higher levels. If they wanted to play that content, they would be on a LIVE server instead of a TLP server \(>.<)/ <(AHHHHH!!!!!)

^ nope

Pharone said:

I really enjoyed reading all of the answers. Thanks for putting this all together.

I have to say that the answers given about making NEW content specifically for TLP servers just showed how much of a disconnect the DBG team has with the TLP player base. The person asking the question was right on point in that DBG literally has TWO SEPERATE games when it comes to TLP and LIVE EverQuest.

The answers that were given indicated that the DBG team still thinks that all those people playing on the TLP servers eventually WANT to catch up to the current Live content. While there are some that do, I would wager heavily on there being a vast majority of TLP customers that do NOT want to catch up to the current Live content. They play on TLP servers because they do NOT LIKE WHAT EVERQUEST HAS BECOME OVER THE YEARS. These people play on the TLP servers up until a certain expansion, and then they unsubscribe until another TLP comes along that they are interested in playing on.

DBG should realize they have TWO SEPERATE EverQuest games in TLP and Live. They should set a line in the sand at a particular expansion, and create new expansions for the TLP servers that branch at that point. Those TLP servers would NEVER progress to another expansoin from the LIVE content from that point forward. Instead, they would have new expansions based on an alternate time line that stick to the game mechanics of the expansions prior to that branch in time.

They even have the perfect opportunity in the lore to make this happen. There is plenty of precedent for the Gods to realize their error in allowing Norrathians to enter the Plane of Knowledge (Planes of Power expansion), do some Godly voodoo magic to go back in time to the point right before travel to the Plane of Knowledge was gained, and alter the timeline to make it never happen.

In essence, on a TLP server, the progression should be:

1. Original
2. Ruins of Kunark
3. Scars of Velious
4. Shadows of Luclin
5. *Brand New TLP-only expansion*
6. *Brand New TLP-only expansion*
7. *Brand New TLP-only expansion*
8. ...

TLP-only expansion basics:

• Stick to the game mechanics that made EverQuest special; root, snare, kiting, charm, mez, split pulling, and slow.
• Level cap never goes up beyond 60.
• Expansion power growth based on bane-based weaponry/armor, AAs, spells, and abilities earned while playing through that expansion
• No HP/MP/END inflation. Instead focus on bane-based stats earned in the expansion content via armor, AAs, and buffs
• No stat bloat. Don't introduce all of those new stats on the equiptment like strike through and such. Looking at gear should not be like reading a book. Instead focus these stats in to AAs earned in the expansions' content, and make it bane-based. In other words, gaining 50% strike through in an expansion shouldn't mean you can never gain that stat ever again due to being over powered. Instead, that 50% strike through AA line you earned in expansion 1 is based on werewolf enemies. That makes it to where you can look forward to earning strike through AAs in future expansion as well and the stat is not shut down from group forever going forward.

This is what needs to happen for EverQuest TLP. Instead, the answers we got were along the line of, "if we put new content in for TLP, it will mess up the already existing content at higher levels." No. No it will not. You just have to realize AND ACCEPT that TLP players on average do NOT want to play the existing content at higher levels. If they wanted to play that content, they would be on a LIVE server instead of a TLP server \(>.<)/ <(AHHHHH!!!!!)

Click to expand...

No.

Tlp servers do not need horrendous investments of developer time to create new content. Tlp players who want new content need to just play the annually released new content in live. Tlp players who don't want new annual content won't be impressed by some tlp themed new content release. Some people do both.

If you want new and innovative on a tlp, that can be done for considerably less dev investment by working with existing content. Motm is a basic example. Future tlps could mess with features such as level caps on harder expacs, eg a luclin/selo start but capped at 50. It could incorporate loy+ldon before pop and/or tss at server start to give a fresh alternate leveling path. They could bulk unlock eg all 65 content at once to have more challenge in the latter end (no time gear at gates start, no 2.0s done as tob is being rushed, etc).

These things use the existing resources that tlpers are looking for in creative ways to be fun. A tlp themed expac, on the other hand, would just be a live expac for lower levels - expecting otherwise is silly. Better to release it for live, those players enjoy it now, tlpers can enjoy it later if they want to or just quit early on and reroll every year or two instead if they want. Those rerollers will never be happy with a new tlp expac anyway because it's never going to fit their comfortable and documented already and hodjing-friendly + mechanics-light safe space to mindlessly play in.

7. PVP server?

Jenn: Zek

Alan: We have one. Play on it and we might be convinced that people actually want to play EQ PVP.

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False there is no progression PVP server. They should do one. Live PVP is unimaginably not cared about through development. Give me a break no one wants it. We just asked for a progression PVP server (what we want) and were offered something we don't want (current modern live pvp server) .... lol ok.

So yeah, make one and I'll play it. These people are completely anti PVP and I can smell it. Battle Royale games and mobas are PVP and mad successful, deal with it.

I love that we have the creators of the game here and they read with their own two eyes if they'd build a wall to keep dark people out lmao never change foh

No one wants to play on current live Zek cause its a clusterfuck with current itemization and AA. Classic-Velious was the sweet spot for PVP and even then the game definitely leans in favor of some classes. Sullon Zek was the most fun I've had in EQ ever.

What if they were like oh if u want a progression pve server u gotta play the live server.

Like... we dont want the live pvp server we want the progression one. So that's a no. Ok.