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Smedley: "EverQuest Next will be the world's largest sandbox-style MMO ever made"
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I am at least hoping this will go well, and that's coming from a SWG and MxO Vet
. Saying something and delivering are two very different things. It does seem like SOE is trying to turn itself around and get away from mistakes made in the past, which is good.
The one big thing I hope for is if EQN will "feel" solid. The biggest turnoff for me with "most" sandbox games is how it feels. like TSW for example (I am not saying it's bad, no need to defend, this is strictly my opinion..now that that's out of the way). It just felt off when I was playing it, the animation (although after going back it does feel much more solid now) , being in the world. GW2 love it or hate it is a good example of the feeling that I like, statability just moving around/attacking things (once again using it as example for my own opinion).
If I could get a sandbox game that felt stable, I would be in love. Hopefully SOE makes up for my dislike of them in the past.
Thank you for this interview post; very informitive.
I believe that the CU and NGE were reactions to pressure from LA. It is very well understood that the CU & NGE was designed by SOE; but why? LA was watching WOW and screaming for SWG to perform that way. The game at the time had been pleagued with bugs. Patch day was a nightmare. One bug would get fixed but end up causing two or more on what was thought to be an unrelated system. This along with other metric reading screw-ups kept population declineing. After WOW launched in '04, players fled to a better built game. Both the CU & NGE were loaded buggy on top of a buggy system. This coupled with stepping on players toes (CU: a. level based combat, b. weapon revamp. NGE: Killing the Alpha Class Jedi) produced the mass exodus that followed. As a game SWG awsome in concept but piss poor in execution.
So as I understand it, your both right.
https://www.therepopulation.com - Sci Fi Sandbox.
When SWG closed, a lot of attention had been payed to the GCW. Planetary control was based on base placement and faction combat. The city invasions were designed to attract folks to PVP but could be done as PVE to an extent. Yes, this combat was in the confines of the last version of the NGE but show me a game today that matches its complexity. Based on the GCW system that was installed in the end showed which faction won that given servers(galaxy) war. I was on Ahazi and the Empire dominated.
The Shadowed Mare - A Tavern North of Caldera and an Elder Scrolls Online Fansite and Forums.
Well I for one am incredibly excited about EQNext. As an Beta Tester or EQ1 .. who played for 7 years I have to say. I am ready to see new life breathed into Norrath. EQ2 never captured me as much as the first EQ did. However I did actually go back to it last year and enjoyed playing it with some friends, still it never had the magic that came from EQ1.
I will say I am hopeful that some of the features that EQ1 had at launch will be in this new installment. Granted much more up to date.
These would be
REAL IMPACT Lighting effects. Going into Dungeons without light sources or enhanced racial visions means you are BLIND. Screen goes black. I played a Human in EQ1, and I remember my first fall into the pit trap in Befallen to find myself staring at a black screen and hearing the sound of a skeleton rising and laughing as it killed me. I could see its spell effects light up momentarily. With the advanced lighting that graphics engines of today. This would be amazing.
Killable EVERYTHING! Guards, merchants, NPCs you name it you can kill it.
To go along with that EQs old faction system was absolutely amazing. You could be killed in your own starting city by the different factions there if you werent careful. Why did this ever leave MMOs? Ohh ya I forgot I WIN (WOW) easy mode game clones. 8(
Class abilities that are designed to be helpful outside of combat situations. Abilitities that create markets alongside skills like crafting. TELEPORTING for donations! yes thank you.
MASSIVE world with multiple RACIAL starting areas. GW2 did this and I love it.
Slower leveling, Slower gear Aquisition. Come on seriously do we need to be fully loaded up with magical equipment by level 5 and have to change out our gear every 3 or 4 levels. I went 24 levels before my Necro got his first truly magical set of robes in EQ1 Flowing Black Robes Remember them? I do. I couldnt tell you the name of the first set of magical robes I got on my elementalist in GW2 (which i just started playing 2 weeks ago). Why? Because they dont matter. Its just another piece of gear that is thrown at me. I played my Necromancer at the launch of EQ1... How many years ago was that? and I still remember getting my first Skull Staff, my First Flowing Black Robes (FBR).. I remember my paladin getting his Cloak of Flames. MAKE GEAR mean something! Aquire it slower. Dont throw it at people and make it meaningless.
I could go on with my rant. However I am done. Needless to say. I am excited about this news. Hopefully they look to the past of a truly great game (EQ1 early days) for inspiration and direction. However combine it with new technology.
I have said to my friends many times. If EQ1 was ever fully overhauled with a completely new graphics engine, and tweaked out features but used the same core game mechanics as early EQ1. I would go back.
Be safe all! I am OOM
You hit it right on the nose my friend. Thats what i'm hopeing for. I remember camping for an FBSS on my warrior and getting it. That was one of my happies moments in all the MMO's i've played. I'm also excited for EQnext but lets be real now. EQ1 develop team is no longer there. I think 2 of 3 main guy that was working on EQ1 are working on EQnext but the person with the vision " Brad McQuaid" isn't even mention on this project. Again we are talking about SoE here....I am still hopeful that this team won't screw up on this. I'm crossing my fingers for EQnext.
sorry i looked into it more...2 of the main guys from EQ2 not EQ1...so yeah.....NO SOE!!!....
Playing: FFXIV, DnL, and World of Warships
Waiting on: Ashes of Creation
Play as your fav retro characters: cnd-online.net. My site: www.lysle.net. Blog: creatingaworld.blogspot.com.
LOL Oddly enough I was at the gym earlier and remembered that site out of nowhere! I hope we see "EQ'Lizer Next"
As for McQuid, hopefully his drug abuse issues have cleared up since Vanguard (I'm not joking, google it.) and I'd glad to see him reimagine The Vision
In a world full of cheese sandwiches, someone just announced a potential steak dinner on the way. It's not unreasonable to be excited about the possibility.
Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011
Its only a valid argument if they did something successfully.. so far.. whats the count now, 0 for 3 ? or was it 5.
biggest failures at SOE to date,
1. top of the list because of the utter level of fail associated with it.. SWG, why changing a game after launch despite player protest is really not a good idea.
2. Matrix online, you probably never heard of it.. theres a good reason for that too
3. Everquest 2.. after multiple 'reinventions and revisions' the game never really took off, but im sure SOE had a lot of fun faffing around with it... which oddly enough is why 1. and 2. were such abysmal failures.
4. Everquest 1. Take a game with a dedicated playerbase and deluge it with a mountain of expac's after luclin though, it was kind of an expac too far, PoP was just the nail in the coffin to all but a few die hard players.
5. Planetside 1. Great game, until, someone decided that what any FPS game really needs, is giant robots..
SOE used to be great for MMO's, but somewhere they kind of lost their way, making one bad call/gamble after another, and thats without even taking into consideration DCUO, Vanguard, and PoTBS ... and the upcoming Planetside 2, which by all indications looks like just an NGE version of Planetside 1.. less really isnt more, but im sure SOE have had a lot of fun 'faffing around' with it.. just add it to the list of SOE epic fails.. so yeah, maybe they do have balls, but.. that just means they are willing to make bad decisions with confidence..
I hope they remake the original, amazing
music
What i would like to see again is the PvP team like they had on the PvP team server on EQ1 (Good races vs short races vs evil races vs Elfs) That was realy fun imo.
Everquest next is being made with PvP in mind so there will definetly be PvP servers on there im hoping for team based PvP like they had on EQ1.
What is or what isnt a themepark/sandbox all comes down to the individual, for me EQ was neither sandbox or themepark.
For me themeparks are on the rail and hold ur hand - which EQ was definetly not this is what i see as the key factor of a themepark game .
For me Sandbox allow you can influence the world itself build cities edit terrain and all that good stuff and lots of xploration and hidden things.
What i would like to see again is the PvP team like they had on the PvP team server on EQ1 (Good races vs short races vs evil races vs Elfs) That was realy fun imo.
I think this is the most likely, and best (imho) outcome. I think we'll see the resurgence of a strong faction system for both NPC and player interaction.
It just means that Everquest was one of the first Theme Park games, Sandbox game mechanics are totally different, its not really a matter of opinion, Sandbox games do not have levels, or 'classes' and neither do the mobs etc that you encounter in the wilderness.
Bring me back so much memeories there Cyber these are some of the hing that made EQ magical and i dont know why they were removed from the genre.
There were quests out there you just had to find them i remember the Gnoll fangs they were no drop items that dropped in black burrow i ended up with 30 of them or so before i wandered across the guard atop the warrior guild (pvp Areana area) in south qeynos that wanted them he game me some moonstone some xp and a little bit of copper for each of them. then i was stuck with there moonstone not sure what there were for went round looking for a npoc who wanted them in South qeynos tried the mage guild first though they might want them but they didnt tried a few more places then decided to go buy some ale from the closest tavern with the copper i got from the gnoll fangs and was like what the hell let see if they wanted them and hit the h key (hail) and sure enough he wanted them lol apparently there used to make some alchoholic breverage and by doing that i got myself some ale for free and some experience which was win win for me lol o the adventures ive had in EQ : )
I have seen that video previously, and I have seen the MMOCharts.com numbers for the time right before the NGE.
In response, I suggest you go read the infamous "om-nom-nom" Rubenfeld blog in it's entirity... but here are the bits that are the key:
Not just make Galaxies better, but make it succesful. Not the 200k subs it had, but really succesful. The idea was that we had the most valuable IP in the entire world, and we fucked it up to the point of having 200k subs.
And yes, all 200k of you were important, but 200k means nothing in the scheme of things.
AND
WOW was out. SWG was niche and clunky.
AND
We told them. “If you do this, you will lose all 200k subscribers. It is that significant.”
It was explained that we would gain more due to the marketing push and relaunch.
That is as close as anyone is going to get on the thinking inside SOE while they were doing the NGE. Even if the numbers were double, it would not have been enough, because WoW was already over a million by then.
Like I said, Smed got WoW Fever.
And SOE did not give a crap about losing every, single paying customer they had at that point, and they knew it ahead of time and did not care. (Paying Customers, mind you. Many players, for years)
THAT is what you need to remember about SOE... as the customer, you are NOTHING to them.
Yeah same here, i remember the dark side of Luclin on my Erudite wizard. Later when i made a Val Shar Beasty i could see unlike my Wizard.
Seriously who cares, get over it already.You wont be playing any SOE games that's fine and your choice but most here could not care less about butt hurt SOE haters. I played SWG and had the hump when it all went down but that was years ago and my life has moved on lol.
I think SOE is learned, finally, that creating one flagship MMO in an attempt to crush WoW in terms of sub numbers is unrealistic, and would rather create multiple, successful in their own right, titles that don't require as much dev attention to keep up with the player base in terms of content I.E. a MMOFPS and Sandbox MMORPG, titles that will like UO, EQ1, etc, be played in 15 years, and let that cash shop money flow.
An "Everquest 3" would suffer the same fate as SWTOR, Rift, TSW, GW2, big budget titles that lose steam, require additional financing to continuiously create new content to try to keep a player base interested enough to buy another "kronos" before jumping ship to the next newest latest and greatest MMO. Chasing that dragon.
But is that necessarily a bad thing? I don't think so.
A sandbox is a toolbox to create my own fun. It's cheaper for them, more enjoyable for me, less for them to fuck up, and if given the chance to invest themselves creates a longer lasting player base.
EVE took that title and still holds it.
Unless SOE come up with a single serverstyle game instead of server shards with 500 players on it....total free gameplay without limitations and player generated gameplay, then again, according to Smedley and his promotion team SWG still holds 300 zillion players online now even when the game is officially dead.
But I doubt SOE can back it up with their history.
I doubt SOE even knows what a sandbox really is, they had one a long time ago with a I WIN button printed on it, they fell flat on their faces. They don't even know how to make a decent themepark mmo.
Can't even think of 1 successful game made by them. All their games are dead or dying,
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"