EQII's producer discusses the next update and scrapped features

by William Dobson on Dec 7th 2009 12:00PM

Fantasy, EverQuest II, Bugs, Expansions, Patches, News Items

The latest EverQuest II producer's letter has shed some light on what the next game update, Will of a Tyrant, is likely to contain when it is released on the 9th of December. Senior producer Alan Crosby freely admitted that the patch will not bring as much new content as players might be used to getting; instead, the focus for this round of updating has been to fix lots of little bugs, some of which have been mildly irritating folks since EverQuest II's launch. Crosby said that this approach was chosen to give the game a nice clean slate for the coming expansion, Sentinel's Fate.

The letter goes on to discuss a couple of features (that may or may not have once been considered a part of the Will of a Tyrant update) that have been scrapped altogether. The Item Ratings system was abandoned, at least partially due to feedback from the player base, and the Fighter revamp that was in the works has been considerably scaled back. Both of these negatives do have a silver lining though -- the developers are looking at alternative ways to enhance gear, and Fighters will still see some tweaks, albeit "small changes, rather than sweeping revamps". Crusaders will be among the first Fighter classes to be looked at -- see the full letter for some early details.

While the producer's letter makes Will of a Tyrant sound overwhelmingly lacklustre, keep in mind that it doesn't go into some previously announced events that should give players something new to do for at least a little while. Hopefully the decision to squash all those bugs pays off with a smooth launch for Sentinel's Fate in February.

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Tags: alan-crosby, eq2, eqii, everquest-2, everquest-ii, expansion, fighter, fighter-revamp, patch, producer, producers-letter, senior-producer, sentinels-fate, sony, sony-online-entertainment, update, will-of-a-tyrant

Reader Comments (3)

What I hate is when the community moans about improvements a game needs. Things like character models are horrible but if you make them better then there will always be people crying on the forums saying not to do it and SOE will listen to them. No improve them and say tough luck because models like Humans have been in a need for a change for years.

The combat is another thing that most people complain about with EQ2, the UI, the armour designs and the boring bland classes. Yet if they try to improve them then people will moan about it, even if it does improve the game and make it more playable.

This is why mmorpgs will always fail IMO because they never change their flaws. SWG is a bad example because they were rushed without testing and broke the game. People will always use that as an example of why you shouldn't change a game. All the NGE taught us really was don't rush out changes that break a game.

My main gripe with EQ2 was how zoned it was and I just wished they made it seamless. Like the cities open them up and make the transitions between each zone seamless, rather than clicking on gates. You know have WoW like boat rides instead of clicking on bells to travel everywhere. I just wish they made zone transitions seamless and more immersive, something they made a big deal about in development.

You say you want it seamless, then cite WoW? A transition is a transition, regardless of whether you click something or board a boat. Honestly, having the transition done by ringing a bell is better -- you can have one spot go to multiple locations without needing multiple docks (or whatever) so there's less confusion. And you also don't have to wait around for the boat to arrive and then again for the boat to depart and then again for it to arrive at the new dock after transitioning.

Are the bells less immersive? Sure. But there is a point where immersion becomes annoying.

I also agree that it would be nice if there were less zones in EQ2 -- especially in the cities. But that's not what keeps me from playing the game anymore. It's ironic, but EQ2 and WoW took totally different approaches with their graphics. In WoW they didn't care about realism or lots of bells and whistles. In EQ2 they put in so many of the latter that the game didn't run worth a damn on most computers. Now we're 5 years later and the irony is that EQ2 is the game that looks dated.

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To this day, I wish the guys at SOE had done this game differently. I adored the original EQ and played it for many, many years. Like aurickle said, though, they chose a graphic design that ran like an ugly beast on most machines. (I had a high-end system when it was released, and it chugged and still does.) They had wonderful background story, a great division of classes and races, and a decent quest system. Sadly, in the long run, their product has been a poor entry in this generation of MMO's. (Not that WOW is better, only that EQ2 was unpleasant to play for so long, I gave up.)

I wish (I WISH!!!) that SOE would invest in a new EQ3 platform, with more stylized graphics. I am aching for an old-school MMO with less hand-holding and a different community than WOW or other recent MMO's.