Everquest 3?

yueamyen

Has anyone heard anything about the possibility of a new EQ MMO? I have been hearing a a few things from friends saying it is in the works so I did some searching and so far this is what i found:

 

Link resource:

http://www.mmo-symposium.com/1120/everquest-3/

Everquest 3?

Whilst reading a new site I discovered about MMORPG’s, a small news article caught my attention. The article in question talks about a 10th Anniversary Everquest book which in the final chapter suggests there is another instalment of Everquest in very early development. The author of the article comes to this conclusion from a piece of text in the book which does seem to point to another Everquest based game, though it gives no details as to whether the game would be an Everquest 3 or a console spin off.

I for one would obviously give EQ3 a try should there ever be such a game, as I’m a long time fan of the world of Norrath. I played the original Everquest for a good few years and have played EQ2 from beta until now. Despite EQ2 “dumbing” down a bit to appeal more to the WoW crowd than the original would have done, Everquest 2 is still in my mind the best MMORPG out there.

There is one problem though, the text from the book talks about bringing the world of Norrath to a new generation of players. For me this means making a game more akin to WoW than the original EQ. WoW is what I do not want a 3rd Everquest to be like. Before you get the wrong idea, I’m not slagging off WoW, although World of Warcraft is not for me due to it’s graphics and easy mode gaming style, it has brought a lot of players to the MMORPG genre who wouldn’t normally even think about playing such games.

I would prefer EQ3 if it happens, to market itself towards the older MMO players, those that like a challenge. There was something to be said for real death penalties where you had to run back to your corpse, along with the fact you couldn’t just flee from creatures and always make it out alive. Vanguard promised this kind of game, but never really delivered due to it’s disastrous launch.

I still live in hope that such a game may be developed one day. After all whilst the largest market is no doubt the younger gamers amongst the MMO community, there are a lot of gamers out there that do want something a bit more difficult. Those gamers that don’t whine when something isn’t given to them on a plate, or that enjoy levelling that you can’t do from 1 to max in a short space of time. These games will in the long run make you more money as they stay with games for longer periods paying more in subscriptions than the players who jump into an MMO hit max level and leave. These games also do not have to be raiders, many in my guild would love such a game to be developed and we are all casual gamers. The level cap for those of us that played Everquest was something that took a long time to reach, but gave a great sense of achievement when it was obtained. Not all casual gamers like easy mode MMO’s.I would like Sony to recognise this market and aim the game at those players rather than try to make the next WoW.

 

Then I found a message on the vanguard website that the lead developer Silius was pulled temporarily for another sony project?

Makes me alittle curious, anyone have any news?

Duvaris

I havnt heard of any plans for an EQ3. But would love to see it. As long as they went back to thier roots. Which i mean have it be more like EQ1. EQ2 is a good game but it has got too easy.

yueamyen

I AGREE!!!!! If they made it like EQ1 gameplay with updated graphics like EQ2  I think there would people that would be very interested, especially most of my old eq1 guildies. I would be in MMO heaven.

 

 

 

 

Iceman12321

this might be overkill. i'm still waiting for my classic everquest server...

Cherise

Yep, it's in the works:

http://www.morpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/247516/page/1

Teren_Kanan

I'd like an EQ3, Take the best things from EQ1 and EQ2 and combine them.

I've played all the major MMO's out there, and EQ2 to me is by far the most polished. Unfortunately it has a few TERRIBLE game mechanics.I would still play EQ2 if not for a couple things.

Combat Lock: This is one of the most horrible ideas implemented in an MMO. Having speed/regen buffs go "idle" during combat is terrible. It also makes "Kiting" very difficult. If a game doesn't want you to "kite" it shouldn't give you the tools to do it. Instead, they give you all the tools, and do their best to take it away from you. Either way, engaging in combat shouldn't affect your buffs.

 

Down Time: EQ2 and EQ1 both had their issues in these catagories. There were times in EQ1 where you would be sitting for literally 15 minutes waiting for mana to regen so you could move onto the next mob. They went slightly overboard when they "fixed" that in EQ2. Given how their regen system works, you regen very quickly in between fights, leaving little to no down time. This isn't nessicarily a bad thing, but I'd like a small amount of downtime, especially in group combat. It'd be nice to be able to take a piss without having to make your whole group wait on you. Much easier to take a quick break during a med break.

 

Combat Speed: Personally, I felt EQ1 was fantastic. I liked the much slower pace combat (especially pvp, but i won't get into that). You had DoT's that would last upwards to a minute or so, and it would take several casts to rot a mob down. in EQ2 DoT's last like 20 seconds and it feels like you are constantly recasting the same spells over and over. Overall group combat goes very fast, killing many groups of mobs every few minutes, in EQ1 a group could spend several minutes fighting 1 mob. I'd personally like to see a good mix of the 2 styles. Some fights going quickly while others taking a while depending on the type of mob (Groups of Humunoid mobs could go quickly, large monsters take longer) . Super fast combat speed takes out some of the strategy of fights. In EQ2 you pretty much have a set order of what to cast, and spam it constantly. It gets old quick.

 

Leveled Spells: Not sure how to describe it, but having Apprentice, Adept, and Master versions of the SAME SPELL that you UPGRADE IN 10 LEVELS is severely annoying and one of the largest money sinks I've experienced in a game. The difference between someone with Apprentice spells, and Master Spells is very large in EQ2, specially with key classes. This helps promote elitism and negativly effects the casual gamer in the standard everyday grouping atmosphere. I'm all for hardcore gamers being a step ahead of casual gamers in terms of gear and what they can accomplish, but having it effect ones ability to get groups is a bad idea. Spells should upgrade via leveling or some kind of point system, not by having to purchase (rediculously) expensive versions of a spell, or hoping rare_mob_02 drops rare_spell_04 for you, at least not until the very end game.

 

Tiered gear: Not much to say here. Gear shouldn't become obsolete every 10 levels. Extremely rare item at lvl 20 shouldn't become useless the moment you hit level 30. In EQ1 there were items gotten at the low levels that people would use well into their 50's.

 

Buff System: EQ2's buff system is terrible. When all your main buffs take less than 10 seconds to cast, never wear off, and effect your entire group, whats the point of even having to cast them? Why not just have them stay on at all times? Not being able to buff non group members is also silly and promotes people being anti-social. Buffs should have a duration, or at the very least, a duration on people outside of your group. Giving and Receiving buffs made for a great community in EQ1.

Receiving no loot for low level mobs: It's garbage and while I certainly understand them not wanting high level characters to be constantly camping low end content, there are better ways to go about it than this.

 

And now for the two things that absolutely killed EQ2 for me.

 

Raid Limits: This is the worst thing I've ever come across in an MMO. Limiting the amount of players who can attend a raid is just awful. Given that no MMO will ever be perfectly "Balanced" (class wise), there will always be classes more desired than others on a raid. Limiting how many people can attend a raid screws the people who happen to be a less desired class, making it very hard for them to raid. It also affects guild recruiting, many guilds will pass up great players because they simply dont' have room for that persons class in their raid. It's just a horribly limiting idea and I hope it never makes its way into future MMO's.

 

Expansion Gear: I don't mind expansions comming out with new and interesting loot, but.. when I spend hours upon hours raiding for the best gear, then day one of a new expansion I upgrade high end raid gear off of some solo named mob.. it drives me insane. Raid gear should only be upgraded by an expansions' Raid gear, not by solo/group content. I quit EQ2 rougly a week after Kunark came out, when I upgraded 3 or 4 of my best raid items off of solo encounters.

 

That aside, EQ2 was an amazing game. It had massive amounts of content and did a good job of keeping you involved in the lore, which it had plenty of. It had a fantastic quest system, beautiful graphics, and huge amount of things to keep you entertained. The mentor system was great, the AA system was unique and gave reason to explore more than just the popular exp grind zones. It had so many amazing things going for it.

 

Fix the issues it had, and it's damn near as perfect as an MMO can get, though I will add that ANY mmo that comes out in the future needs to hire an economist to keep the games economy balanced.