Hey, if plenty of people who want to finance rich former game developers out there, then more power to Brad and his peers, especially if they can get a few million for a no risk venture.
I'd rather SOE had nothing to do with this game. Smed has the Mr. Hankey touch - everything he touches turns to shit.
I agree. SOE owes much of everything to EQ.
I know, right, like seriously! The only thing better than zoning back and forth between areas in a game is having it completely seamless and having the game freeze up for a good 5 seconds as the new, ummm, NOT-a-zone loads. Both were much better options than eliminating harsh transitions and loading between areas of the game, right?
Sooo, instead of a group looking for a certain level tank, they'll be looking for a tank with a certain number of powerups. And you're going to go back to your noob zone with all your powerups and what, not out'powerup' the content? It's just a different name for the same mechanics, and why spend time investing in lipstick for a pig when you could be fattening the pig up for slaughter.I just think so much more can be done without levels from a development side of things. We spend years creating content for a 1-50 experience that players blow through and then it's mostly never used again. Factor in the fact that you're making low to level zones for 2+ factions/starting areas and you spend all of that development time on content designed to advance a number. Content for max level players usually suffers, at least the amount provided at launch which leads to people getting bored and quitting not long after.
Levels also cause artificial barriers that help prevent players playing together. Your new buddy just started and you want him to come play with you and your friends but you can't because he's level 1 and you're already 35. Sure there are bandaids like mentoring but that is extra systems that need to be built because of levels.
You can still have progression built into the game. Stuff like having abilities, items and other forms of power boosts found out in the world where you have to find them and it's not just handed to you because your level went up by 1. Add in an AA system similar to EQ and you can still give players the feeling of character progression without them needing to level.
I don't know. I just want a well built world where from day 1 I log in and I'm sent out into a dangerous world to explore and conquer. I don't need 50 levels of grinding to get to the badass part. When I say no levels, I'm also suggesting the world be dangerous enough and your mostly grouping even in "overland zones". You're not running around doing trivial errands, you're out front at the gates where it's like stepping foot into the plane of fear for the first time. Maybe this is why I'm not allowed to be in charge of shit
Does Microsoft give out it's current tech to the developers who made Windows 1.0? I don't get why some people in this thread think SoE will be willing to let Brad walk out the door with the keys to the kingdom 'just because'. If Brad has access to SoE tech it's because he's paid for the license to use it.
Its a niche game right? Brad and co are not going for the $200 million dollar AAA title, and no one that is looking forward to the possibility of a new game from Brad really wants him to explore all these new ideas and concepts, we want an updated Everquest. He doesn't have to reinvent the wheel here, just produce a quality game that returns the genre to the concepts that actually worked. All this discussion over seamless worlds (which for the record, was the initial idea for Everquest) and no levels is the polar opposite of what we want from a new game. All the new concepts and ideas that have been instituted in today's newer games simply do not work. People play for a few weeks then quit. Over and over and over again companies are spending millions and millions and millions of dollars making all these newer ideas the core of their games, and for the most part, the ideas fail time and time again.
Levels do not bother me as long as they are eventful... what do i mean ? Leveling rapid fire with no new abilities and character progression sucks. I want old school LONG ass levels with meaningful leveling points. i.e. in vangaurd there are no talent points, just stats you allocate which was fine but every other level you are getting new skills that is great... not this new thing where you have the majority of your abilities by level 10.
Didn't they say FD pulling wasn't intentional? FD pulling is an art form. Genius whoever first started the idea.
And that's the problem right? If you've got more than two classes - you can't ever actually balance. The best you can do is RPS - Warrior beats Ranger who beats Cleric who beats Warrior.
Pulling anything wasn't intentional. They had no idea separate groups of players would sit at a static area of a dungeon and pull mobs back to them.
Not having loading zones between every area, dungeon, cave and hole in the ground isn't exactly reinventing the wheel. Seems to me it's pretty basic stuff these days, and there's a big difference between reinventing something and risking its failure (Vanguard's chunk system) and simply not taking huge steps back in game design by copying something from 15 years ago.
The ironic thing is arguably two of the games that allowed for the most outside-of-intended mechanics were both Brad projects. Vanguard was also pretty interesting with finding unintended ways to accomplish things due to it's chaotic development 'cycle' and the fact there were never enough devs around trying to fix things.
