EQ Dev Chat:
Verfasst: Mi 20 Okt, 2004 14:07http://eq.stratics.com/content/hoclogs/eqgeneralhoc.php
Brekkee - Good evening and welcome to another great Stratics House of Commons chat, tonight our guests are the developers of EverQuest! Tonight’s topic is general discussion so all questions are welcome.
Brekkee - Please send your questions to [QT]Megyn or [QT]Elm - to do so type /query NICK and type in the window that pops up. Questions sent to me or the developers will not make it into the lineup, so don't bother. Full logs of the chat will be up on http://eq.stratics.com shortly after the chat.
Brekkee - We'll start with a brief introduction from the developers, now would be a good time to send those questions.
Rashere - Hey Folks. I'm Travis McGeathy, game designer on EverQuest.
Vahlar - Evenin'! I'm Holly Longdale, designer on EQ Live.
Prathun - Good evening everyone! I'm Jonathan Caraker, a game designer on EQ Live. =)
Brenlo - Howdy Folks. I am Alan Crosby the Community Relations Manager for EverQuest
Grumbuk - Hi, I'm Eric Cosky, assistant lead programmer.
Brekkee - *Nanyea|TheRunes* In regards to the enchanter epic 1.5/2.0 are there plans to change the focus effect (currently 4 perc agro reduction), and instead solve the agro problem via spells (currently in the top 10 list)
Vahlar - The epic focus effects are currently being reviewed, though it may not result in any changes to any of the items.
Brekkee - *Ariu* Enchanters have been told that mobs will continue to scale faster than PCs and that this is why charm had to be 'changed.' However, this presents another challenge to us as well. This type of scaling is what has lead and will continue to lead to out-of-camp CC rather than mez. With the decline of both charm and mez, what is being done to ensure that the enchanter will have a role in Everquest's future?
Rashere - The change we made to charm in Omens was done to help ensure that enchanters can continue to use one of their staple abilities as the game continues to evolve. Because NPCs scale at a different rate than PCs do, charm also grew at a substantially greater power rate than other PC abilities. In the past, that has meant that we’d have to disable charm totally or only make it usable on specific, lower powered NPCs. The charm we made in Om
Rashere - The charm we made in Omens allows charm to be used more freely. I know there are some concerns with the balance questions this has brought up and we will continue to monitor the specifics of the change to ensure the ability remains useful and balanced.
Rashere - The charm = the change.
Brekkee - *Angelic* Hi. I have a question. Since the regen rate has been raised for all characters from EQL, does that mean no more worrying about Bind Wound ability? And do we have to shop for the dreaded food and water still? Thank you.
Prathun - You can now use the bind wounds skill while sitting down, so you will still regenerate hit points faster using bind and resting than simply resting.
Brekkee - *Lord_Of_Dreams* The con and experience system seems to be a little off now at higher levels, compared to the way it used to be. At level 70 there are light blue "raid" mobs who can wipe an entire group, and res con mobs that can be solo'd. Would it be possible to get a con system that truly reflects a mobs difficulty to kill, based on hp's, damage output, and special abilities rather than just level?
Brenlo - We will have our coders review the Con Code and see what we can figure out.
Grumbuk - Having con colors be a dynamic value rather than being merely a function of level is a good idea which we should explore. Thanks for the suggestion.
Brekkee - *locvz* Question: It's been about 2 months since the initial PvP changes. What kind of additional changes are in the works? When can us Zekkers expect the rest of the changes to go live?
Brenlo - Rytan and Hobart are evaluating the results of the PVP changes and considering what else to add. Expect some announcements in the next couple of weeks.
Brekkee - *Rhasin* I'm curious why the developers felt it was necessary to ban pets from using the Di'zok Shillalegh (60% slow proc). With only magicians incapable of casting a slow innately, the argument of "pets lasting too long" seems a bit of a slap, considering magician pets are not hands above, say, a beastlord's.
Brenlo - Well there are actually 2 parts to this answer.
Brenlo - The first is that eventually many items may be made to have this change which may eventually affect all pet classes.
Brenlo - The second is that this was supposed to be a test item for a new flag on test. We did not intend it to go live just yet. We stealth nerfed ourselves on this occasion.
Brekkee - *Naladini* There have been a number of questions raised about population issues on the Stormhammer Server. What does the dev team have in store with future updates to help draw people back to the Legends Service?
Vahlar - We are still very committed to the Legends server and providing content specifically for them. It’s our goal to continue supporting the players on Stormhammer and offering high-quality service.
Brenlo - In addition the Legends web features should be working again. We made some changes to the character file which caused a compatibility issue. It is now corrected.
Brekkee - *Lord_Of_Dreams* When will flagging/backflagging be looked at? Backflagging was a hassle in PoP. With time and GoD, the lack of a 15% rule makes it even worse. It is difficult for a guild to go back and do the same 8 encounters just to be able to get the 1 or 2 new people into their raids.
Rashere - We are currently looking into solutions to the back flagging issue. In Omens, the single locked zone has some built in mechanisms to alleviate the tedium involved with back flagging and we are investigating using something similar in previous expansion areas. I would watch for a formal announcement of our plans in the near future.
Brekkee - *Lister* What's the most surprising thing the playerbase has done in Omens of War so far?
Prathun - I was surprised and impressed at how fast the playerbase was able to solve all the epic quests so soon after launch.
Prathun - With as many open-ended puzzles, scripted encounters, and new challenges - it's a testament to the creativity and tenacity of the players that they were able to finish them so quickly. I remember back in Kunark... the original epics took months to solve.
Brekkee - *Dragowulf* my question is this... recently it was discovered that the end GoD event was... well not quite up to par. We saw similar occurences in end Time events. Can we expect this trend to continue with OoW and future expansion?
Rashere - I’m not quite sure what you mean by “not up to par”. Tacvi is completely functional, although very challenging. I’ve been monitoring guild progress through the zone for some time now and have been making tweaks to correct problem areas throughout the zone including the final boss fight. It’s something I’ll continue to do in the future as well.
Brekkee - *Loral* Will we see more point-based LDON style loot systems in the future?
Brenlo - Shouldn't Loral be writing another column for me? Hee hee. Who knows what the future may hold Loral. No plans for the near future but there is a lot of EQ to go.
Brekkee - *Naladini* What plans might be in the works to improve the patching/testing process? Brenlo noted before that there was a mistake with the pet item flag making it to the live servers. Has there been any discussion regarding a public test server? A place where patches could get pushed a day or so early for all players to review? As we know, not everything currently on test will make it to live, this might help ensure that fact
Brenlo - We have a public test server =)
Brenlo - Sometimes things slip through the cracks. This was one of those cases
Brenlo - We hate when it happens but believe it or not (other than Vahlar) it does happen
Grumbuk - The days just prior to a scheduled patch, Test server always has the code that is going to go live. So that's the time to check.
Vahlar - Uh...
Vahlar - what are "slips"?
Brekkee - *Loral* Woot, Vahler's here! What sort of direction will we see the storyline take in the next few months?
Brenlo - A sharp left turn followed by a bump
Vahlar - I’m very excited about the direction that the story is taking and you can expect to see some interesting events in the world of Norrath. As I said, and promised, some familiar faces may rise to the surface, but of course, I’m not going to tell you now. The team is really thrilled about how the Days of Our Norrath play out.
Brenlo - We are really thrilled
Grumbuk - from a technical standpoint things are definately going to be interesting..
Brenlo - Much like a good instruction manual
Vahlar - Except with better outfits
Brekkee - *Lord_Of_Dreams* Was a type 4 slot on the cleric epic 1.5/2.0 intentional? (Since it's a shield?)
Prathun - Originally, only melee epics had type 4 slots, but due to player feedback we added it to all the epics. While it will of course not be helpful to slap a proc augment into your shield, it will still accept augments that fit in any slot (such as the BiC augments).
Brekkee - *JMorgana* Is the chanter epic subquest broken for 1.5 for those that don't have epic 1.0? Or has the starting NPC just not been found yet?
Vahlar - The enchanter epic, including the pre-Epic 1.5 quest (which allows you to skip the Epic 1.0 quest) is indeed working and in the game and has been since release...enchanters just haven't been looking in the right places.
Brekkee - *Lord_Of_Dreams* What do you think of Citadel access being discovered so soon after the release of the expansion? Do you expect OoW to be "beaten" soon?
Brenlo - With the open zone format we expected folks to get there pretty quickly. Was not much of a surprise and we think figuring it out and finishing it will be tough.
Brekkee - *Kaaihn* Is there any news you can give us about an LDoN 2 expansion, or an addition to the current themes, gear and level wise?
Brenlo - We do have a plan for the next 18 months or so of EQ and we unfortunately cannot give you news about expansions.
Brenlo - So stay tuned as we have lots of good stuff planned
Brekkee - *Ariu* Are class definition documents still in the works?
Brenlo - YES! They are, we in fact had meetings today on this. Now we most likely will not be publically releasing the documents publically.
Brenlo - But they will give us solid footing for figuring out the class issues and helping you to understand our points.
Brenlo - We want each class to be fun and have strengths and weaknesses. We feel that many classes are there now but some need some tweaking here and there.
Brenlo - The docs will help us to figure out where to tweak.
Brekkee - *tukasa* how will the devs draw people to draniks scar expiditions in oow in terms of loot ect seeing as people mostly go to walls of slaughter instead
Prathun - As far as difficulty progression, Wall of Slaughter is a higher tier zone than the Dranik's Scar instances. The content should be more challenging, and the loot and experience will be better.
Prathun - There are still reasons to go into the instances, but if your primary concern is equipment, you'll be better served in Muramite Proving Grounds, Wall of Slaughter, or Riftseekers - if your group can manage there.
Brekkee - *Naladini* Where do the class top 10 lists rank in the current development priority scheme?
Brenlo - The top 10 lists are lists from you and not promises that we will make those changes. =)
Brenlo - That said, we actually met on these today too to figure out what we can, will and will not do and hope to be able to disclose those answers soon.
Brekkee - *Loral* what sort of features will we see in the future to help EQ's new players out?
Vahlar - EverQuest is not going anywhere any time soon, so we’re always looking for innovative ways to bring new players into the game. We have a lot of ideas and we do get some notions from players through feedback. The Tutorial was one method we used to bring new players up to speed on playing the game and I’m certain we won’t stop there.
Brekkee - *Kaaihn* Follow up to the answer to my previous question about LDoN, I am specifically wondering if the current LDoN content will be made to work for groups that are all 66+ members.
Rashere - Level 66+ players currently have access to the 65 hard range of adventures, which essentially becomes ‘70 normal’. We don’t have immediate plans to go back and add a 70 hard setting.
Brekkee - *Lister* The behind-the-scenes underpinnings of EQ have changed radically in recent years. What are you most excited about doing that wasn't possible before?
Grumbuk - One thing that is very exciting to me is enhancing the dynamic content of zones.
Grumbuk - For example, you all know that most zones are very .. static
Grumbuk - one thing we are working on now is the ability to introduce animated zone models
Grumbuk - for instance, a lot of games, you see environmental models that do animated stuff
Grumbuk - in EQ right now you don't see much beyond windmills. We're going to eventually support animated environmental models that are much more flexible than what we have now.
Grumbuk - I could go on and on about the technology we have planned but I better just keep it short and say, we have a lot of things in the list and we have a lot of smart coders working hard. I expect many things will change and we'll be able to provide the designers & artists with the tools they need to make state of the art content.
Brekkee - *Zia* Is there anything, gamewise or lorewise that you're not happy with right now?
Prathun - As a die-hard perfectionist, I'm never completely satisfied with what I'm involved with. There's nothing that couldn't be further improved with more time for polish.
Brenlo - I am not happy with our coffee.
Vahlar - I'm not happy that Brenlo's not happy with the coffee.
Vahlar - After reading a lot of feedback about the lore, we're happy to take a new direction with it and do what we love the most -- invent, invent, invent, but we're using history to build on. So, it's not that I wasn't happy (except about Brenlo), but I'm excited about the times ahead.
Brekkee - *Nanyea|TheRunes* EQ has alot of competition coming up this christmas, what new kinds of technology are being implemented to help keep up with the Jones's (btw /bite Brenlo)
Brenlo - Competition is a good thing and we are excited that the number of MMO players will be expanding.
Brenlo - We are also moving EQ forward to keep it competitive. You see the first of this in the new graphics
Brenlo - We will continue improving the graphics. Grumbuk and his guys are pretty smart and have figured out all sorts of new fun stuff.
Grumbuk - Most of what we have planned we want to keep under wraps at the moment.
Grumbuk - (code wise)
Brenlo - We think that our 5+ years of content added to the new graphics will keep EQ competitive. And we are not done yet. We are working on more content, features and goodies for you all.
Brenlo - and Ice Cream
Prathun - They never let us go home.
Brekkee - *Padrick* God gave the player base some nice LEadership abilities. What is in the future for more abilities?
Rashere - Leadership abilities is an area that we’ll very likely be adding to in future expansions.
Brekkee - *Zia* In what zone do you yourself prefer to level/goof around, and why?
Brenlo - Profound Rashere. Profound
Rashere - I kept it nice and short just for Vahlar.
Vahlar - Not too long ago, I decided to do my Crown of Deceit quest and had to raise my faction in Lower Guk. I had a really great time as a 65 beastlord going back to that zone after a few years and just laying waste to it by myself for a few hours. Later, I went back with a level 40 character and a group and relived the old challenges of that zone that I experienced the first time around. I love the design of that zone.
Grumbuk - For some reason I always wind up in lower guk also, can't help myself, it's just classic. But I do it the fun way- with a character that's way too level to feel safe!
Rashere - I’m thoroughly enjoying exploring the new zones, particularly the outdoor ones. Although being involved in the development takes the surprise out of it, I never tire of playing with others who are enjoying our work.
Prathun - I have fond memories of the Tower of Frozen Shadow. A day or two after Velious was released, my guild explored that zone and it was simply amazing. Great backstory, unique well-defined areas, a unique keyed progression.
Brenlo - Anywhere I can kill Dark Elves is a good start =P For some reason though I love Crushbone. I will often go there, even though I am far too high a level and kill Ambassador Dvinn over and over and over and over and over and over.
Brenlo - I am not a vengeful person though
Brenlo - No really
Vahlar - Don't we all know it.
Brenlo - Get back to work you . . .
Grumbuk - I do have a lot of fun exploring around in general though, I somehow never get over the sense of space in the game.
Brekkee - That will wrap it up for tonight. Thanks for coming! You can join #EverQuest to chat more about the game.
Brekkee - The log for tonight’s chat will be up shortly on http://eq.stratics.com
Brenlo - Thanks for coming! Thank Vahlar for the zone and mob names in Gates!
Prathun - Thank you all for joining us tonight. *bow*
Grumbuk - Thanks for sticking around
Vahlar - ajp;o9weruap;wohjdddxXTtv.v.... that's your new nickname.
Rashere - Always fun. Thanks everyone for the great questions.
Rashere - How is that pronounced?
Prathun - Fhqwhgads
Vahlar - Pronounced "Fred"
Brekkee - Good evening and welcome to another great Stratics House of Commons chat, tonight our guests are the developers of EverQuest! Tonight’s topic is general discussion so all questions are welcome.
Brekkee - Please send your questions to [QT]Megyn or [QT]Elm - to do so type /query NICK and type in the window that pops up. Questions sent to me or the developers will not make it into the lineup, so don't bother. Full logs of the chat will be up on http://eq.stratics.com shortly after the chat.
Brekkee - We'll start with a brief introduction from the developers, now would be a good time to send those questions.
Rashere - Hey Folks. I'm Travis McGeathy, game designer on EverQuest.
Vahlar - Evenin'! I'm Holly Longdale, designer on EQ Live.
Prathun - Good evening everyone! I'm Jonathan Caraker, a game designer on EQ Live. =)
Brenlo - Howdy Folks. I am Alan Crosby the Community Relations Manager for EverQuest
Grumbuk - Hi, I'm Eric Cosky, assistant lead programmer.
Brekkee - *Nanyea|TheRunes* In regards to the enchanter epic 1.5/2.0 are there plans to change the focus effect (currently 4 perc agro reduction), and instead solve the agro problem via spells (currently in the top 10 list)
Vahlar - The epic focus effects are currently being reviewed, though it may not result in any changes to any of the items.
Brekkee - *Ariu* Enchanters have been told that mobs will continue to scale faster than PCs and that this is why charm had to be 'changed.' However, this presents another challenge to us as well. This type of scaling is what has lead and will continue to lead to out-of-camp CC rather than mez. With the decline of both charm and mez, what is being done to ensure that the enchanter will have a role in Everquest's future?
Rashere - The change we made to charm in Omens was done to help ensure that enchanters can continue to use one of their staple abilities as the game continues to evolve. Because NPCs scale at a different rate than PCs do, charm also grew at a substantially greater power rate than other PC abilities. In the past, that has meant that we’d have to disable charm totally or only make it usable on specific, lower powered NPCs. The charm we made in Om
Rashere - The charm we made in Omens allows charm to be used more freely. I know there are some concerns with the balance questions this has brought up and we will continue to monitor the specifics of the change to ensure the ability remains useful and balanced.
Rashere - The charm = the change.
Brekkee - *Angelic* Hi. I have a question. Since the regen rate has been raised for all characters from EQL, does that mean no more worrying about Bind Wound ability? And do we have to shop for the dreaded food and water still? Thank you.
Prathun - You can now use the bind wounds skill while sitting down, so you will still regenerate hit points faster using bind and resting than simply resting.
Brekkee - *Lord_Of_Dreams* The con and experience system seems to be a little off now at higher levels, compared to the way it used to be. At level 70 there are light blue "raid" mobs who can wipe an entire group, and res con mobs that can be solo'd. Would it be possible to get a con system that truly reflects a mobs difficulty to kill, based on hp's, damage output, and special abilities rather than just level?
Brenlo - We will have our coders review the Con Code and see what we can figure out.
Grumbuk - Having con colors be a dynamic value rather than being merely a function of level is a good idea which we should explore. Thanks for the suggestion.
Brekkee - *locvz* Question: It's been about 2 months since the initial PvP changes. What kind of additional changes are in the works? When can us Zekkers expect the rest of the changes to go live?
Brenlo - Rytan and Hobart are evaluating the results of the PVP changes and considering what else to add. Expect some announcements in the next couple of weeks.
Brekkee - *Rhasin* I'm curious why the developers felt it was necessary to ban pets from using the Di'zok Shillalegh (60% slow proc). With only magicians incapable of casting a slow innately, the argument of "pets lasting too long" seems a bit of a slap, considering magician pets are not hands above, say, a beastlord's.
Brenlo - Well there are actually 2 parts to this answer.
Brenlo - The first is that eventually many items may be made to have this change which may eventually affect all pet classes.
Brenlo - The second is that this was supposed to be a test item for a new flag on test. We did not intend it to go live just yet. We stealth nerfed ourselves on this occasion.
Brekkee - *Naladini* There have been a number of questions raised about population issues on the Stormhammer Server. What does the dev team have in store with future updates to help draw people back to the Legends Service?
Vahlar - We are still very committed to the Legends server and providing content specifically for them. It’s our goal to continue supporting the players on Stormhammer and offering high-quality service.
Brenlo - In addition the Legends web features should be working again. We made some changes to the character file which caused a compatibility issue. It is now corrected.
Brekkee - *Lord_Of_Dreams* When will flagging/backflagging be looked at? Backflagging was a hassle in PoP. With time and GoD, the lack of a 15% rule makes it even worse. It is difficult for a guild to go back and do the same 8 encounters just to be able to get the 1 or 2 new people into their raids.
Rashere - We are currently looking into solutions to the back flagging issue. In Omens, the single locked zone has some built in mechanisms to alleviate the tedium involved with back flagging and we are investigating using something similar in previous expansion areas. I would watch for a formal announcement of our plans in the near future.
Brekkee - *Lister* What's the most surprising thing the playerbase has done in Omens of War so far?
Prathun - I was surprised and impressed at how fast the playerbase was able to solve all the epic quests so soon after launch.
Prathun - With as many open-ended puzzles, scripted encounters, and new challenges - it's a testament to the creativity and tenacity of the players that they were able to finish them so quickly. I remember back in Kunark... the original epics took months to solve.
Brekkee - *Dragowulf* my question is this... recently it was discovered that the end GoD event was... well not quite up to par. We saw similar occurences in end Time events. Can we expect this trend to continue with OoW and future expansion?
Rashere - I’m not quite sure what you mean by “not up to par”. Tacvi is completely functional, although very challenging. I’ve been monitoring guild progress through the zone for some time now and have been making tweaks to correct problem areas throughout the zone including the final boss fight. It’s something I’ll continue to do in the future as well.
Brekkee - *Loral* Will we see more point-based LDON style loot systems in the future?
Brenlo - Shouldn't Loral be writing another column for me? Hee hee. Who knows what the future may hold Loral. No plans for the near future but there is a lot of EQ to go.
Brekkee - *Naladini* What plans might be in the works to improve the patching/testing process? Brenlo noted before that there was a mistake with the pet item flag making it to the live servers. Has there been any discussion regarding a public test server? A place where patches could get pushed a day or so early for all players to review? As we know, not everything currently on test will make it to live, this might help ensure that fact
Brenlo - We have a public test server =)
Brenlo - Sometimes things slip through the cracks. This was one of those cases
Brenlo - We hate when it happens but believe it or not (other than Vahlar) it does happen
Grumbuk - The days just prior to a scheduled patch, Test server always has the code that is going to go live. So that's the time to check.
Vahlar - Uh...
Vahlar - what are "slips"?
Brekkee - *Loral* Woot, Vahler's here! What sort of direction will we see the storyline take in the next few months?
Brenlo - A sharp left turn followed by a bump
Vahlar - I’m very excited about the direction that the story is taking and you can expect to see some interesting events in the world of Norrath. As I said, and promised, some familiar faces may rise to the surface, but of course, I’m not going to tell you now. The team is really thrilled about how the Days of Our Norrath play out.
Brenlo - We are really thrilled
Grumbuk - from a technical standpoint things are definately going to be interesting..
Brenlo - Much like a good instruction manual
Vahlar - Except with better outfits
Brekkee - *Lord_Of_Dreams* Was a type 4 slot on the cleric epic 1.5/2.0 intentional? (Since it's a shield?)
Prathun - Originally, only melee epics had type 4 slots, but due to player feedback we added it to all the epics. While it will of course not be helpful to slap a proc augment into your shield, it will still accept augments that fit in any slot (such as the BiC augments).
Brekkee - *JMorgana* Is the chanter epic subquest broken for 1.5 for those that don't have epic 1.0? Or has the starting NPC just not been found yet?
Vahlar - The enchanter epic, including the pre-Epic 1.5 quest (which allows you to skip the Epic 1.0 quest) is indeed working and in the game and has been since release...enchanters just haven't been looking in the right places.
Brekkee - *Lord_Of_Dreams* What do you think of Citadel access being discovered so soon after the release of the expansion? Do you expect OoW to be "beaten" soon?
Brenlo - With the open zone format we expected folks to get there pretty quickly. Was not much of a surprise and we think figuring it out and finishing it will be tough.
Brekkee - *Kaaihn* Is there any news you can give us about an LDoN 2 expansion, or an addition to the current themes, gear and level wise?
Brenlo - We do have a plan for the next 18 months or so of EQ and we unfortunately cannot give you news about expansions.
Brenlo - So stay tuned as we have lots of good stuff planned
Brekkee - *Ariu* Are class definition documents still in the works?
Brenlo - YES! They are, we in fact had meetings today on this. Now we most likely will not be publically releasing the documents publically.
Brenlo - But they will give us solid footing for figuring out the class issues and helping you to understand our points.
Brenlo - We want each class to be fun and have strengths and weaknesses. We feel that many classes are there now but some need some tweaking here and there.
Brenlo - The docs will help us to figure out where to tweak.
Brekkee - *tukasa* how will the devs draw people to draniks scar expiditions in oow in terms of loot ect seeing as people mostly go to walls of slaughter instead
Prathun - As far as difficulty progression, Wall of Slaughter is a higher tier zone than the Dranik's Scar instances. The content should be more challenging, and the loot and experience will be better.
Prathun - There are still reasons to go into the instances, but if your primary concern is equipment, you'll be better served in Muramite Proving Grounds, Wall of Slaughter, or Riftseekers - if your group can manage there.
Brekkee - *Naladini* Where do the class top 10 lists rank in the current development priority scheme?
Brenlo - The top 10 lists are lists from you and not promises that we will make those changes. =)
Brenlo - That said, we actually met on these today too to figure out what we can, will and will not do and hope to be able to disclose those answers soon.
Brekkee - *Loral* what sort of features will we see in the future to help EQ's new players out?
Vahlar - EverQuest is not going anywhere any time soon, so we’re always looking for innovative ways to bring new players into the game. We have a lot of ideas and we do get some notions from players through feedback. The Tutorial was one method we used to bring new players up to speed on playing the game and I’m certain we won’t stop there.
Brekkee - *Kaaihn* Follow up to the answer to my previous question about LDoN, I am specifically wondering if the current LDoN content will be made to work for groups that are all 66+ members.
Rashere - Level 66+ players currently have access to the 65 hard range of adventures, which essentially becomes ‘70 normal’. We don’t have immediate plans to go back and add a 70 hard setting.
Brekkee - *Lister* The behind-the-scenes underpinnings of EQ have changed radically in recent years. What are you most excited about doing that wasn't possible before?
Grumbuk - One thing that is very exciting to me is enhancing the dynamic content of zones.
Grumbuk - For example, you all know that most zones are very .. static
Grumbuk - one thing we are working on now is the ability to introduce animated zone models
Grumbuk - for instance, a lot of games, you see environmental models that do animated stuff
Grumbuk - in EQ right now you don't see much beyond windmills. We're going to eventually support animated environmental models that are much more flexible than what we have now.
Grumbuk - I could go on and on about the technology we have planned but I better just keep it short and say, we have a lot of things in the list and we have a lot of smart coders working hard. I expect many things will change and we'll be able to provide the designers & artists with the tools they need to make state of the art content.
Brekkee - *Zia* Is there anything, gamewise or lorewise that you're not happy with right now?
Prathun - As a die-hard perfectionist, I'm never completely satisfied with what I'm involved with. There's nothing that couldn't be further improved with more time for polish.
Brenlo - I am not happy with our coffee.
Vahlar - I'm not happy that Brenlo's not happy with the coffee.
Vahlar - After reading a lot of feedback about the lore, we're happy to take a new direction with it and do what we love the most -- invent, invent, invent, but we're using history to build on. So, it's not that I wasn't happy (except about Brenlo), but I'm excited about the times ahead.
Brekkee - *Nanyea|TheRunes* EQ has alot of competition coming up this christmas, what new kinds of technology are being implemented to help keep up with the Jones's (btw /bite Brenlo)
Brenlo - Competition is a good thing and we are excited that the number of MMO players will be expanding.
Brenlo - We are also moving EQ forward to keep it competitive. You see the first of this in the new graphics
Brenlo - We will continue improving the graphics. Grumbuk and his guys are pretty smart and have figured out all sorts of new fun stuff.
Grumbuk - Most of what we have planned we want to keep under wraps at the moment.
Grumbuk - (code wise)
Brenlo - We think that our 5+ years of content added to the new graphics will keep EQ competitive. And we are not done yet. We are working on more content, features and goodies for you all.
Brenlo - and Ice Cream
Prathun - They never let us go home.
Brekkee - *Padrick* God gave the player base some nice LEadership abilities. What is in the future for more abilities?
Rashere - Leadership abilities is an area that we’ll very likely be adding to in future expansions.
Brekkee - *Zia* In what zone do you yourself prefer to level/goof around, and why?
Brenlo - Profound Rashere. Profound
Rashere - I kept it nice and short just for Vahlar.
Vahlar - Not too long ago, I decided to do my Crown of Deceit quest and had to raise my faction in Lower Guk. I had a really great time as a 65 beastlord going back to that zone after a few years and just laying waste to it by myself for a few hours. Later, I went back with a level 40 character and a group and relived the old challenges of that zone that I experienced the first time around. I love the design of that zone.
Grumbuk - For some reason I always wind up in lower guk also, can't help myself, it's just classic. But I do it the fun way- with a character that's way too level to feel safe!
Rashere - I’m thoroughly enjoying exploring the new zones, particularly the outdoor ones. Although being involved in the development takes the surprise out of it, I never tire of playing with others who are enjoying our work.
Prathun - I have fond memories of the Tower of Frozen Shadow. A day or two after Velious was released, my guild explored that zone and it was simply amazing. Great backstory, unique well-defined areas, a unique keyed progression.
Brenlo - Anywhere I can kill Dark Elves is a good start =P For some reason though I love Crushbone. I will often go there, even though I am far too high a level and kill Ambassador Dvinn over and over and over and over and over and over.
Brenlo - I am not a vengeful person though
Brenlo - No really
Vahlar - Don't we all know it.
Brenlo - Get back to work you . . .
Grumbuk - I do have a lot of fun exploring around in general though, I somehow never get over the sense of space in the game.
Brekkee - That will wrap it up for tonight. Thanks for coming! You can join #EverQuest to chat more about the game.
Brekkee - The log for tonight’s chat will be up shortly on http://eq.stratics.com
Brenlo - Thanks for coming! Thank Vahlar for the zone and mob names in Gates!
Prathun - Thank you all for joining us tonight. *bow*
Grumbuk - Thanks for sticking around
Vahlar - ajp;o9weruap;wohjdddxXTtv.v.... that's your new nickname.
Rashere - Always fun. Thanks everyone for the great questions.
Rashere - How is that pronounced?
Prathun - Fhqwhgads
Vahlar - Pronounced "Fred"