I'm another one of those that hasn't been happy with an MMO since EQ1. My theory is because of the classes. I have yet to see any classes in any other MMO's come close to being as cool as EQ1 including EQ2! Remember how cool druids were and then the beastlords came out and they were a great addition as well! Relying on a druid or wizard for a ride was also great till they added PoP. It took some of the need for those classes out which also took away getting to know people.
I say bring back EQ 1 but scale back some of the changes made with expansions. Bring it back with better graphics but not graphics that look plastic like EQ2. Bring back the original NPC's even and most importantly bring back all the classes we grew to love that can't be found in any other game the way it was done in EQ2. Also, don't forget those cool spell effects! :-)
I have not been playing EQ1 or Vanguard much lately. I got a bit tired of it. Some things that would bring me back and get me excited:
1) Customizable character images. And I like Fat, short, skinny.... how much effort does it take to create a body type slider?
2) Customizable classes, so that everone is not a cooky-cutter image of everyone else. Even just a spell or melee skill tree would be better than nothing. Learn a basic skill and you can open other skill options which lead each character to different directions of developement. How hard could that be? Levels are OK, but doing away with them would not really irritate me. Let skill levels be important, rather than character levels.
3) If you are going to keep levels, make levels goals, rather than grinds. How about Every Level takes the same amount of EXP to attain, once you get the level, you gain options to learn skills which improve your character, add to stats, or hit points or spell points.... allow for more customization in character design.
4) If you keep EXP, then remember that in the real world experiences can be gained in more ways than kacking things. Learning a tradeskill, practicing trading, just living from day to day, traveling from place to place, doing tasks for people. Make monster killing just a part of how you gain exp, not the main method for gaining exp. Being defeated should actually be worth more exp than winning.... sigh, but that would be contra-indicated I would think. LOL.
5) I like instances. Make a good combination of instanced adventures and set piece adventures and you will enthuse me for sure. I sometimes like to go it alone, and sometimes love to be in a group. Instances for both individual play styles and group play styles would be nice. The one thing that is important: Instances should be short, to the point, and for a specific goal. Set piece adventures should be epic, fairly long and involved. Sitting around killing mobs for the heck of it should lead to diminishing returns.
6) Tradeskills should be challenging but not boring. The idea that you need to pound your keyboard to scap in order to gain a level in a tradeskill is stupid. Make the items created by tradeskills useful, and fun, and tradeable. Don't make them worthless, allow them to be sold to vendors and other players. Use them to stimulate a game economy.
7) Make Guild Halls fully costomizable. Make player residences fully customizable. Make player clothing at least somewhat customizable.
8) Make NPC's interactive. Nothing irritates me more than seeing a dozen npc's standing around and all of them sell the same things and none of them will talk to you. If nothing else, have all NPC's choose from a list of random simple tasks which they would like done, or have tradeskill vendors that ask you to go get items for them to use as raw materials or to sell.... make them truely interactive in the simplest way you can.
9) Have the NPC's say things. Walk around. Guards should hail travelers, Barkeeps should ask what customers are drinking, random people should have something to say, even if it's a canned greeting.
10) Discourage PVP in all it's forms. I hate PVP. If you must have PVP, put it on it's own server and NEVER let it come to any ohter servers.
11) Make communication between players easy. Make trading easy. I liked the post office idea in Vanguard.
In closing, I'd like to suggest that you plagerize heavily from City of Heroes and City of Villains. You could learn a lot from them.
That's where I've been for the last year, and unless EQ shapes up, I'm not coming back any time soon.
In my opinion it should be, real time combat, without target lock, without auto-attack and probably skill based and probably with directional attacks, I mean, real directional attacks and defense. In the sorecery side, probably the same, aiming of spells without target lock, carefull use of area of damage spells and so on.
asheron's call still has the best class system. you choose what you want , and put exp points into the skills you want, no two characters are the same. Anarchy online does the same type of this. but you have to choose a class then you add points as you level into what skills you want this could work for eq maybe.
Horizons crafting . was so much nicer then any game. you harvest, which takes time. but then you craft fast you could make 100 of an item if your weight allowance would allow. in seconds. so you don't have to spend days crafting. plus building houses and businesses was neat, hire npc to sell the items you made ect. oh and the class system horizons had was cool. you could choose many classes and multi class lots of them. the more you had the harder to level. but was nice. kinda like the AD&D days but you start off a warrior and add a cleric in 10/10 levels you could become a paladin. and even add a mage to it. get some stills from each class. again making every one different .
Right now on EQ 1 on this new server every one make a character and we're all the same as each other in the same class. same gear. all stats maxed out same spells. only possible difference is race. and since most level the same way only raid gear will make us different. in asheron's call and anarachy online plus horizons it's almost im possbile to be the same from lvl 1 to end game. skill based leveling would be nice to see in EQ
darkfall i guess has the skill based skill idea but it really need more to it. just hate repeating the same thing over and over for hours just to improve a skill. EQ would have quests to help i'm sure.
EQ2 has a lot of good things. i just hate the heroic thingy. love the housing but would be more fun having to harvest matieral and build it our selves with guild mates. making whole guild towns like horizons game does. could be fun.
i'd really like to see a warhammer type of instance pvp combat. so when we don't want to pvp we just stay out of the instances and play normal. but for those who like to pvp once and awhile , having missions and conquoring type of pvp instance could be fun. could be race based. or good vs evil. or just make guild , or raid type everyone can join que and when enough are in teams made up auto wise. throw a color banner on every one so you know what team your on and go fight.
so much more from other games i could say. but just home from work and i have a bad head ache....
Originally posted by Archtype Best thing to do is not make it like all the other MMo's out there today where any crack riddled 12 yr old can make top level in 3 weeks.
Make it like OLD EQ prior to Planes of Power where you had to achieve things with effort. Where you had to group. Where gaining a level felt like an achievement. Where traveling took longer than 10 seconds.
Want instant gratification and an MMO on easy mode. Play WOW with the rest of the kiddies and brain dead people. Want a real MMO like they used to make that drew you into it and grabbed you... than go old school.
EQ's Velious expansion to me was top notch. I loved everything about the epicness of it. The way guilds raced to epic mobs. No ignorant kiddie instancing. COMPETITION WAS THE FLAVOR. The drama it caused. The grinding.. oh yes.... I have killed MILLIONS of dwarfs and furbies out in the wastes.. and loved every bit of it.
I haven't found a good MMO since I left EQ and DAOC ( pre ToA ) and have longed for another like those. Vanguard had potential but alas.................. I've been lookin for roughly 6 years now. Played EVE for over 4 years but it never filled that void.
As much as some will disagree with this... hire Brad Mquaid to make the next EQ I'd buy a lifetime subscription at $300 a pop right now all day long. To me... he makes great MMo's. Although Vanguard got abit screwed up and had endless money issues.. the right concept for it was in place.
Not all of us want want easy mode kiddie MMO's like WOW and Aion. Some of us want real depth .
Completely agree.
Take out long raiding. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to get a piece of equipment for the 80th time because their are 40 others in the raid rolling for the same thing. PLEASE take out the emphasis on gear too. One of the major drawbacks (IMO) of most MMO's these days is the massive emphasis on gear. It make players greedy and self centered and ruins the feel of a community.
In the original EQ your gear turned heads based on the color you dyed it. The community was great! VERY helpful in answering questions about how to get places for newcomers, where certain items dropped, how to defeat certain mobs, and just general discussion was enjoyable...like an MMO SHOULD be. Most MMO's now put TOO MUCH emphasis on gear. I understand that today's kids are spoiled rotten with whatever they want because most parents are career oriented and occupy their kids with gifts instead of their time, but let's not continue that rend in MMO's...PLEASE.
What made EQ great was the difficulty of it and the community. As the quoted above said, gaining a level felt like an accomplishment. And even after gaining that level, getting a comfortable amount of experience into that level was exciting because you knew if you died early into the level you could de-level again. Having to run back to your corpse to loot your items...although at times could have the potential of being frustrating...to me was more fun than anything because it too was fun and challenging trying to accomplish.
Sony....take a good long look at EVE Online, just from the "learning curve" and difficulty standpoint. EVE has one of the most docile and helpful communities I have seen in MMO's SINCE EQ. Why? They didn't bend to cookie-cutter easy mode whines.
Look at World of Warcraft now. Millions of subs? Sure, but at the cost of being able to make top level in a couple of weeks, WAY TOO MUCH emphasis on gear (any moron with purple gear can kill anyone without it), easy quests (too many "Kill/Collect X amount of X" quests), and one of the worse communities I have ever seen in any MMO to date.
So to shuffle through all my blathering, if you want something truly great (IMO) :
ADD:
- Great storyline
- Less Raid grind
- Less emphasis on gear
- No instances or super fast transportation (Make the world FEEL big)
- Great crafting with actual purpose...in turn...
- Great economy system
- DIFFICULTY
- Slow leveling system
- Lots of classes and races with purpose, not just "coolness" factor
- NO PVP...or give them their own servers at least. Just not zones that allow PvP on PvE servers, because some idiots always XFer over just to be jerks.
I wish I could think of a sure fire way to keep gold farmers at bay as well....not only would it make the game play more enjoyable by not getting 1000 bad english spams, but I'd be rich too! =P
Failed fantasy based RPG PVP games litter the landscape. No reason to add one more to the list. Aside from WoW's fluff PvP (no real penalties for dying, no real reason to fight), every other fantasy mmorpg with PvP at its core (DAOC, WAR, AOC, Darkfall, Shadowbane, etc etc) has failed miserably to do both good pvp, and keeping subs. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Actually DAOC rocked as far as pvp and RVR went I don't know what game you were playing. My first 2 years on Andred/Mordred ( THE hardcore 24 hbours a day servers ) are the best in gaming for me as for others. So no I disagree 100000000% as others will. If thats how you feel.. fine.. but to say fail? Your Delusional. As far as Shadowbane goes.. never played it but have heard quite a few people say the pvp game rocked.
Daoc started losing it's player base once TOA was released. Trying to make a game like that a hardcore grind like EQ didn't work nor is it what the player base wanted. Again.. to say fail? Your high on crack.
DAOC PvP rocked? If you enjoy ganking and exploits sure. And the farce of the RvR, where one realm almost always dominated the other two. Of course, when I played it originally, they had forgotten to INCLUDE RvR as the game wasn't ready when released, and the PvP was very laughable (heal bots, etc). I remember the swarms of people all /stuck on each other, making it look like a writhing mass of poo.
BTW, Mordred is populated by about 7 people nowadays, while the PvE only server has over 100.... what does that tell you about your beloved PvP in DAOC?
Yeah, their really is no good PvP in any game. Closest I have seen is EVE PvP. At least there it requires a knowledge of almost every ship class to know what tactics to use when faced by them because it DOES matter. You can also get even fights quite a bit where it can go either way.
Most PvP games these days is high levels ganking low levels, group zone raping, or high levels again ganking lowbies, and then running at the first sign of a possible challenge from high levels coming to the lowbies rescue. And these are the same people who are nasty on the forums and talk smack in game...it's sad. It also stagnates the community with idiotic players and chat dribble. PvP is a joke. Keep it on the consoles where it belongs (HALO, CoD, Battlefield, etc.).
Failed fantasy based RPG PVP games litter the landscape. No reason to add one more to the list. Aside from WoW's fluff PvP (no real penalties for dying, no real reason to fight), every other fantasy mmorpg with PvP at its core (DAOC, WAR, AOC, Darkfall, Shadowbane, etc etc) has failed miserably to do both good pvp, and keeping subs. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Actually DAOC rocked as far as pvp and RVR went I don't know what game you were playing. My first 2 years on Andred/Mordred ( THE hardcore 24 hbours a day servers ) are the best in gaming for me as for others. So no I disagree 100000000% as others will. If thats how you feel.. fine.. but to say fail? Your Delusional. As far as Shadowbane goes.. never played it but have heard quite a few people say the pvp game rocked.
Daoc started losing it's player base once TOA was released. Trying to make a game like that a hardcore grind like EQ didn't work nor is it what the player base wanted. Again.. to say fail? Your high on crack.
DAOC PvP rocked? If you enjoy ganking and exploits sure. And the farce of the RvR, where one realm almost always dominated the other two. Of course, when I played it originally, they had forgotten to INCLUDE RvR as the game wasn't ready when released, and the PvP was very laughable (heal bots, etc). I remember the swarms of people all /stuck on each other, making it look like a writhing mass of poo.
BTW, Mordred is populated by about 7 people nowadays, while the PvE only server has over 100.... what does that tell you about your beloved PvP in DAOC?
Your referring to numbers 8 years after it was released? Although the clusters still have numbers, low server pops but it's all combined in the cluster so not bad. Add in the fact they are working on merging all into one server aside from Mordred and the CO OP server Ghaeris , should be a nice healthy and fun server. Yeah we all hated the bots, but it was still lots of FUN... and there in lies the keyword... FUN.
I'm sorry you couldn't hold your own on the full pvp servers. I know the 8 man gank squads towards the end were abit annoying and took alot of the fun away... it was still hella fun /shrug
- No instances or super fast transportation (Make the world FEEL big)
- Great crafting with actual purpose...in turn...
- Great economy system
- DIFFICULTY
- Slow leveling system
- Lots of classes and races with purpose, not just "coolness" factor
- NO PVP...or give them their own servers at least. Just not zones that allow PvP on PvE servers, because some idiots always XFer over just to be jerks.
I wish I could think of a sure fire way to keep gold farmers at bay as well....not only would it make the game play more enjoyable by not getting 1000 bad english spams, but I'd be rich too! =P
Great idea's there. As much as I love PVP in MMo's if done right ........ I think they should keep it like original EQ and have pvp only servers. I don't think EQ would have been as magical if you had it on the PVE servers although I can't say that honestly as it could have been a nice twist? Think rushing Temple of Veeshan having to fight other guilds to get to mobs? Fun yeah? get old and frustrating... hmm yeah.. keep it for PVP only servers I think.
I think if they took EQ 1 revamped the graphics engine, took the ability to fly from Vanguard, Kept it where you only need 24 friends(or less) for raids from eq2, armor custimization from Aion! EQ 1 would take over the world!!!
Bring "an innovative, outside of the MMO box look at Norrath"? Hardly.
"bring the world of Norrath to a new generation of players, as well as the dedicated legions of fans who made the EverQuest franchise timeless." sounds to me like "we'll make something that appeals to every, hardcores and casuals.
Like someone already mentioned "EQ meets FreeRealms".
All I can say is to just take the current EQ and put a new face on it. Basically upgrade the graphics to be more current but still not require the most powerful machine on the planet.
EQ, as it is now, has become fantastic. I just recently returned to it and am shocked with how much it has improved with the mercenaries and the ability to loot nice gear without the need to raid or group. With just me and my friend, each using a mercenary, we can kill groups of red con mobs that we could never have handled with full groups in the past.
The game has become so much fun. And it has way more depth than most any other game on the market. Great job. Just upgrade those graphics and no other game could touch it the way it is now.
I think one thing that everyone forgets that EQ had a blend, sorta-kinda, of Level + skill based gaming. If you were leveling a Wizard you had to level your Conjuring and Evocation, etc. You also needed to specialize at some point in one of the magic skills. So yes the leveling was slow and painful at times (sort of missed for some of us old timers) as you leveled your skills increased until they capped which made you hit harder and harder to hit, etc.
I think that todays games are missing some of that old school pen and paper style items in the game: spending stat/skill points (mainly this item) - which made people more attached to the toons. You also have to admit that the death experience in EQ 1 made for better players: you lose xp plus dropping your items.
At some point the games started to cater more and more to the casual gamer: mainly more and more solo game play. Another thing missing from games that EQ 1 had, forced grouping: yes it did suck if you couldnt get a group, kinda meant that gaming that night was a bust - but it also helped players meet eachother and not allow people to be totally anti-social. The forced grouping and slower leveling (ala the Hell Levels) helped weed out BAD players....something desperately needed in todays mmo's.
I guess I could sum up my statement into the future of MMO's will need to get back to the roots where grouping and guilding ruled the day and where dieing actually meant something, and something painful (no more dieing just to get back to the bind to avoid the run), and slow down the progression (add some hell levels).
I think one thing that everyone forgets that EQ had a blend, sorta-kinda, of Level + skill based gaming. If you were leveling a Wizard you had to level your Conjuring and Evocation, etc. You also needed to specialize at some point in one of the magic skills. So yes the leveling was slow and painful at times (sort of missed for some of us old timers) as you leveled your skills increased until they capped which made you hit harder and harder to hit, etc. I think that todays games are missing some of that old school pen and paper style items in the game: spending stat/skill points (mainly this item) - which made people more attached to the toons. You also have to admit that the death experience in EQ 1 made for better players: you lose xp plus dropping your items. At some point the games started to cater more and more to the casual gamer: mainly more and more solo game play. Another thing missing from games that EQ 1 had, forced grouping: yes it did suck if you couldnt get a group, kinda meant that gaming that night was a bust - but it also helped players meet eachother and not allow people to be totally anti-social. The forced grouping and slower leveling (ala the Hell Levels) helped weed out BAD players....something desperately needed in todays mmo's. I guess I could sum up my statement into the future of MMO's will need to get back to the roots where grouping and guilding ruled the day and where dieing actually meant something, and something painful (no more dieing just to get back to the bind to avoid the run), and slow down the progression (add some hell levels). Just my opinions...
Valid opinions and good observations. Sadly though, their aren't enough people that feel as we do to get a game headed back in that direction.
Since Blizzard introduced WoW, with it's SERIOUSLY easy game play to attract every moron with a pulse, mainly console players (I'm a console player too, but you know the type I mean), now every company has seemed to suddenly stop putting as much thought into original game mechanics, quests, etc, and more thought into how it can be like WoW...and failing miserably. They seem focused on the cash cow now solely, instead of cash AND making a great game. Or they listen to the whines of the WoW refugee majority and botch up a game that started out on the right foot (See AoC).
Too many of today's players seem to think having slow leveling or hard to get items, etc are not fun. God forbid you have to work for anything. They are too use to getting everything handed to them and fail to see that working for an item brings immense gratification. MMO's were meant to be long epic adventures, but this new generation keeps trying to push them closer and closer to console games with easy game play, fast leveling and gear acquirement, etc.
Sony, believe me when I tell you that if you make it like old EQ with updated graphics, and some new stuff added in on top of that, you WILL get a large grateful community. Don't let cash cloud your creativity, it will come regardless.
As if they will read this, but here's to wishful thinking lol.
i'd love to see the eq religion mean some thing. eq. a paladin is good alignment. and in D&D world could never group with evil alignments. . so make good clerics and paladins impossible to group with evil. and make shardow knights and evil clerics impossible to group with good alignment. hmm i'd guess necromancers are evil also, i think eq2 had the good vs evil classes thing. i'd like to see with.
even better since we might want to play with our friends who are evil or good. make the EXP bonus better if all good or evil. or even better if all same faith, or even if all from same town "starter town born wise"
i'd like to see EXP bonus for evil characters killing good mobs if not in a group with good and vice-versa. just make picking our race and faction religion worth picking.
the more choices the more individual we will feel. more fun this way and more satifaction with question. picking groups. leveling.
i also agree with time concuming leveling. the game should take a year to get to make level casual playing wise.
eq1 took me 2 weekends just to get to 15th level. before POK came out.
one thing i hated about eq1 but was changed and i love it now. was we had a lot of levels that we got nothing but hp and mana for no spells. now we get at least one spell per lvl . this makes lvling a level worth it.
i'd like to see the AA thing early on. make it kinda the same as it is now but let us get a less version of the AA's at lower levels with less time on the benfit or spell or longer reuse time. eq2 i think we get AA's at level 11. and aa's are gained by quests vs mob killing i like that, as the game is everquest. so i think it would be great to have AA's based on quests, mabe some from mob killing. like reaching 100 kills of one type 500, 1000, 5000, 10000 ect. i think eq2 has something like that.
oh and let hope they beta test the hell out of it. we don't need a failed launch like vanguard. i like vanguard a lot of neat idea. but was missing so much and crashed way to much the first month.
test it and test it again with more players and then again and a again. 6 months of testing till you have 1000 beta testers on same sever enjoying the game , then launch it. and KILL WOW
I would also like the quests to be simular to what you had in the begining of EQ. No exclamation points. Part of an adventure was finding these quests.
And please put me down for beta testing. I was a trouble shooter for NEC for 20 years. Thanks for asking for our input reguarding this game. Looking forward to hearing more about this.
I would also like the quests to be simular to what you had in the begining of EQ. No exclamation points. Part of an adventure was finding these quests. And please put me down for beta testing. I was a trouble shooter for NEC for 20 years. Thanks for asking for our input reguarding this game. Looking forward to hearing more about this.
YES! This is something I forgot to mention.
Most of the fun of EQ was finding not only hidden areas, but hidden NPC's that offered quests. I found nothing more irritating and bland than when MMO's started adding big exclamation points above NPC's heads. On top of that, having fantasy GPS on the map to show you where every quest is...for a lack of better words, sucked.
It was always more fun to be given hints, maybe even with possible landmarks added into those hints and finding it on your own. PLEASE don't add exclamation points and GPS to everything. Leave in some of the mystery and adventure. MMO's are suppose to be an adventure, not packman with dots to lead you to everything.
I have to agree with the GPS style that questing has turned into over the last few years being really poor. Gameplay is getting reduced to clicking on an npc, clicking the accept button, run to the premarked spot on the map and killing or clicking on whatever is at that location.
Some real quests would be nice again, but I think the age of spoiler sites has pretty much done away with the mystery aspect of mmos.
Some real quests would be nice again, but I think the age of spoiler sites has pretty much done away with the mystery aspect of mmos.
True.....to a point. When I played EQ back in the day those sites existed already. I ONLY used them if after several days of attempting a quest and still wasn't able to figure them out. THEN I'd peak to get a hint of what I was missing. It's all about a person's own willpower and self control on if they want to do as I did, not use them at all, or use them all the time and then bitch on the forums how the quest sucked...even though it was more than likely because they brought it on themselves lol.
Comments
My original EQ days were the best gaming days of my life.
Scrap everything EQ2... BRING ON THE EQ1 (before PoP!)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EQ 1 with a flavour of something 'next-gen' will be REALLY something to look forward to.
I'm another one of those that hasn't been happy with an MMO since EQ1. My theory is because of the classes. I have yet to see any classes in any other MMO's come close to being as cool as EQ1 including EQ2! Remember how cool druids were and then the beastlords came out and they were a great addition as well! Relying on a druid or wizard for a ride was also great till they added PoP. It took some of the need for those classes out which also took away getting to know people.
I say bring back EQ 1 but scale back some of the changes made with expansions. Bring it back with better graphics but not graphics that look plastic like EQ2. Bring back the original NPC's even and most importantly bring back all the classes we grew to love that can't be found in any other game the way it was done in EQ2. Also, don't forget those cool spell effects! :-)
Who's the housewife-turned-model at the pic? XD
NEW IDEAS that can refresh the STALE state of MMORPGs
I have not been playing EQ1 or Vanguard much lately. I got a bit tired of it. Some things that would bring me back and get me excited:
1) Customizable character images. And I like Fat, short, skinny.... how much effort does it take to create a body type slider?
2) Customizable classes, so that everone is not a cooky-cutter image of everyone else. Even just a spell or melee skill tree would be better than nothing. Learn a basic skill and you can open other skill options which lead each character to different directions of developement. How hard could that be? Levels are OK, but doing away with them would not really irritate me. Let skill levels be important, rather than character levels.
3) If you are going to keep levels, make levels goals, rather than grinds. How about Every Level takes the same amount of EXP to attain, once you get the level, you gain options to learn skills which improve your character, add to stats, or hit points or spell points.... allow for more customization in character design.
4) If you keep EXP, then remember that in the real world experiences can be gained in more ways than kacking things. Learning a tradeskill, practicing trading, just living from day to day, traveling from place to place, doing tasks for people. Make monster killing just a part of how you gain exp, not the main method for gaining exp. Being defeated should actually be worth more exp than winning.... sigh, but that would be contra-indicated I would think. LOL.
5) I like instances. Make a good combination of instanced adventures and set piece adventures and you will enthuse me for sure. I sometimes like to go it alone, and sometimes love to be in a group. Instances for both individual play styles and group play styles would be nice. The one thing that is important: Instances should be short, to the point, and for a specific goal. Set piece adventures should be epic, fairly long and involved. Sitting around killing mobs for the heck of it should lead to diminishing returns.
6) Tradeskills should be challenging but not boring. The idea that you need to pound your keyboard to scap in order to gain a level in a tradeskill is stupid. Make the items created by tradeskills useful, and fun, and tradeable. Don't make them worthless, allow them to be sold to vendors and other players. Use them to stimulate a game economy.
7) Make Guild Halls fully costomizable. Make player residences fully customizable. Make player clothing at least somewhat customizable.
8) Make NPC's interactive. Nothing irritates me more than seeing a dozen npc's standing around and all of them sell the same things and none of them will talk to you. If nothing else, have all NPC's choose from a list of random simple tasks which they would like done, or have tradeskill vendors that ask you to go get items for them to use as raw materials or to sell.... make them truely interactive in the simplest way you can.
9) Have the NPC's say things. Walk around. Guards should hail travelers, Barkeeps should ask what customers are drinking, random people should have something to say, even if it's a canned greeting.
10) Discourage PVP in all it's forms. I hate PVP. If you must have PVP, put it on it's own server and NEVER let it come to any ohter servers.
11) Make communication between players easy. Make trading easy. I liked the post office idea in Vanguard.
In closing, I'd like to suggest that you plagerize heavily from City of Heroes and City of Villains. You could learn a lot from them.
That's where I've been for the last year, and unless EQ shapes up, I'm not coming back any time soon.
In my opinion it should be, real time combat, without target lock, without auto-attack and probably skill based and probably with directional attacks, I mean, real directional attacks and defense. In the sorecery side, probably the same, aiming of spells without target lock, carefull use of area of damage spells and so on.
Well, just an idea.
They should take a little from each game.
asheron's call still has the best class system. you choose what you want , and put exp points into the skills you want, no two characters are the same. Anarchy online does the same type of this. but you have to choose a class then you add points as you level into what skills you want this could work for eq maybe.
Horizons crafting . was so much nicer then any game. you harvest, which takes time. but then you craft fast you could make 100 of an item if your weight allowance would allow. in seconds. so you don't have to spend days crafting. plus building houses and businesses was neat, hire npc to sell the items you made ect. oh and the class system horizons had was cool. you could choose many classes and multi class lots of them. the more you had the harder to level. but was nice. kinda like the AD&D days but you start off a warrior and add a cleric in 10/10 levels you could become a paladin. and even add a mage to it. get some stills from each class. again making every one different .
Right now on EQ 1 on this new server every one make a character and we're all the same as each other in the same class. same gear. all stats maxed out same spells. only possible difference is race. and since most level the same way only raid gear will make us different. in asheron's call and anarachy online plus horizons it's almost im possbile to be the same from lvl 1 to end game. skill based leveling would be nice to see in EQ
darkfall i guess has the skill based skill idea but it really need more to it. just hate repeating the same thing over and over for hours just to improve a skill. EQ would have quests to help i'm sure.
EQ2 has a lot of good things. i just hate the heroic thingy. love the housing but would be more fun having to harvest matieral and build it our selves with guild mates. making whole guild towns like horizons game does. could be fun.
i'd really like to see a warhammer type of instance pvp combat. so when we don't want to pvp we just stay out of the instances and play normal. but for those who like to pvp once and awhile , having missions and conquoring type of pvp instance could be fun. could be race based. or good vs evil. or just make guild , or raid type everyone can join que and when enough are in teams made up auto wise. throw a color banner on every one so you know what team your on and go fight.
so much more from other games i could say. but just home from work and i have a bad head ache....
Completely agree.
Take out long raiding. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to get a piece of equipment for the 80th time because their are 40 others in the raid rolling for the same thing. PLEASE take out the emphasis on gear too. One of the major drawbacks (IMO) of most MMO's these days is the massive emphasis on gear. It make players greedy and self centered and ruins the feel of a community.
In the original EQ your gear turned heads based on the color you dyed it. The community was great! VERY helpful in answering questions about how to get places for newcomers, where certain items dropped, how to defeat certain mobs, and just general discussion was enjoyable...like an MMO SHOULD be. Most MMO's now put TOO MUCH emphasis on gear. I understand that today's kids are spoiled rotten with whatever they want because most parents are career oriented and occupy their kids with gifts instead of their time, but let's not continue that rend in MMO's...PLEASE.
What made EQ great was the difficulty of it and the community. As the quoted above said, gaining a level felt like an accomplishment. And even after gaining that level, getting a comfortable amount of experience into that level was exciting because you knew if you died early into the level you could de-level again. Having to run back to your corpse to loot your items...although at times could have the potential of being frustrating...to me was more fun than anything because it too was fun and challenging trying to accomplish.
Sony....take a good long look at EVE Online, just from the "learning curve" and difficulty standpoint. EVE has one of the most docile and helpful communities I have seen in MMO's SINCE EQ. Why? They didn't bend to cookie-cutter easy mode whines.
Look at World of Warcraft now. Millions of subs? Sure, but at the cost of being able to make top level in a couple of weeks, WAY TOO MUCH emphasis on gear (any moron with purple gear can kill anyone without it), easy quests (too many "Kill/Collect X amount of X" quests), and one of the worse communities I have ever seen in any MMO to date.
So to shuffle through all my blathering, if you want something truly great (IMO) :
ADD:
- Great storyline
- Less Raid grind
- Less emphasis on gear
- No instances or super fast transportation (Make the world FEEL big)
- Great crafting with actual purpose...in turn...
- Great economy system
- DIFFICULTY
- Slow leveling system
- Lots of classes and races with purpose, not just "coolness" factor
- NO PVP...or give them their own servers at least. Just not zones that allow PvP on PvE servers, because some idiots always XFer over just to be jerks.
I wish I could think of a sure fire way to keep gold farmers at bay as well....not only would it make the game play more enjoyable by not getting 1000 bad english spams, but I'd be rich too! =P
DAOC PvP rocked? If you enjoy ganking and exploits sure. And the farce of the RvR, where one realm almost always dominated the other two. Of course, when I played it originally, they had forgotten to INCLUDE RvR as the game wasn't ready when released, and the PvP was very laughable (heal bots, etc). I remember the swarms of people all /stuck on each other, making it look like a writhing mass of poo.
BTW, Mordred is populated by about 7 people nowadays, while the PvE only server has over 100.... what does that tell you about your beloved PvP in DAOC?
Yeah, their really is no good PvP in any game. Closest I have seen is EVE PvP. At least there it requires a knowledge of almost every ship class to know what tactics to use when faced by them because it DOES matter. You can also get even fights quite a bit where it can go either way.
Most PvP games these days is high levels ganking low levels, group zone raping, or high levels again ganking lowbies, and then running at the first sign of a possible challenge from high levels coming to the lowbies rescue. And these are the same people who are nasty on the forums and talk smack in game...it's sad. It also stagnates the community with idiotic players and chat dribble. PvP is a joke. Keep it on the consoles where it belongs (HALO, CoD, Battlefield, etc.).
See what Vanguard : Saga of Heroes should have been at release ?? That's what I'd like the next EQ to be like !
Im positive there will be PvP in the next EQ.
FFA PvP at that!
DAOC PvP rocked? If you enjoy ganking and exploits sure. And the farce of the RvR, where one realm almost always dominated the other two. Of course, when I played it originally, they had forgotten to INCLUDE RvR as the game wasn't ready when released, and the PvP was very laughable (heal bots, etc). I remember the swarms of people all /stuck on each other, making it look like a writhing mass of poo.
BTW, Mordred is populated by about 7 people nowadays, while the PvE only server has over 100.... what does that tell you about your beloved PvP in DAOC?
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Your referring to numbers 8 years after it was released? Although the clusters still have numbers, low server pops but it's all combined in the cluster so not bad. Add in the fact they are working on merging all into one server aside from Mordred and the CO OP server Ghaeris , should be a nice healthy and fun server. Yeah we all hated the bots, but it was still lots of FUN... and there in lies the keyword... FUN.
I'm sorry you couldn't hold your own on the full pvp servers. I know the 8 man gank squads towards the end were abit annoying and took alot of the fun away... it was still hella fun /shrug
As goatgod posted :
ADD:
- Great storyline
- Less Raid grind
- Less emphasis on gear
- No instances or super fast transportation (Make the world FEEL big)
- Great crafting with actual purpose...in turn...
- Great economy system
- DIFFICULTY
- Slow leveling system
- Lots of classes and races with purpose, not just "coolness" factor
- NO PVP...or give them their own servers at least. Just not zones that allow PvP on PvE servers, because some idiots always XFer over just to be jerks.
I wish I could think of a sure fire way to keep gold farmers at bay as well....not only would it make the game play more enjoyable by not getting 1000 bad english spams, but I'd be rich too! =P
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Great idea's there. As much as I love PVP in MMo's if done right ........ I think they should keep it like original EQ and have pvp only servers. I don't think EQ would have been as magical if you had it on the PVE servers although I can't say that honestly as it could have been a nice twist? Think rushing Temple of Veeshan having to fight other guilds to get to mobs? Fun yeah? get old and frustrating... hmm yeah.. keep it for PVP only servers I think.
I think if they took EQ 1 revamped the graphics engine, took the ability to fly from Vanguard, Kept it where you only need 24 friends(or less) for raids from eq2, armor custimization from Aion! EQ 1 would take over the world!!!
I am so good, I backstabbed your face!
Bring "an innovative, outside of the MMO box look at Norrath"? Hardly.
"bring the world of Norrath to a new generation of players, as well as the dedicated legions of fans who made the EverQuest franchise timeless." sounds to me like "we'll make something that appeals to every, hardcores and casuals.
Like someone already mentioned "EQ meets FreeRealms".
Edit: what a hot girl at Smedley's side!!
All I can say is to just take the current EQ and put a new face on it. Basically upgrade the graphics to be more current but still not require the most powerful machine on the planet.
EQ, as it is now, has become fantastic. I just recently returned to it and am shocked with how much it has improved with the mercenaries and the ability to loot nice gear without the need to raid or group. With just me and my friend, each using a mercenary, we can kill groups of red con mobs that we could never have handled with full groups in the past.
The game has become so much fun. And it has way more depth than most any other game on the market. Great job. Just upgrade those graphics and no other game could touch it the way it is now.
We shall see, we shall see.
Hell to the NO to RMT!!
I think one thing that everyone forgets that EQ had a blend, sorta-kinda, of Level + skill based gaming. If you were leveling a Wizard you had to level your Conjuring and Evocation, etc. You also needed to specialize at some point in one of the magic skills. So yes the leveling was slow and painful at times (sort of missed for some of us old timers) as you leveled your skills increased until they capped which made you hit harder and harder to hit, etc.
I think that todays games are missing some of that old school pen and paper style items in the game: spending stat/skill points (mainly this item) - which made people more attached to the toons. You also have to admit that the death experience in EQ 1 made for better players: you lose xp plus dropping your items.
At some point the games started to cater more and more to the casual gamer: mainly more and more solo game play. Another thing missing from games that EQ 1 had, forced grouping: yes it did suck if you couldnt get a group, kinda meant that gaming that night was a bust - but it also helped players meet eachother and not allow people to be totally anti-social. The forced grouping and slower leveling (ala the Hell Levels) helped weed out BAD players....something desperately needed in todays mmo's.
I guess I could sum up my statement into the future of MMO's will need to get back to the roots where grouping and guilding ruled the day and where dieing actually meant something, and something painful (no more dieing just to get back to the bind to avoid the run), and slow down the progression (add some hell levels).
Just my opinions...
Your remarks are ill advised Templar.
Valid opinions and good observations. Sadly though, their aren't enough people that feel as we do to get a game headed back in that direction.
Since Blizzard introduced WoW, with it's SERIOUSLY easy game play to attract every moron with a pulse, mainly console players (I'm a console player too, but you know the type I mean), now every company has seemed to suddenly stop putting as much thought into original game mechanics, quests, etc, and more thought into how it can be like WoW...and failing miserably. They seem focused on the cash cow now solely, instead of cash AND making a great game. Or they listen to the whines of the WoW refugee majority and botch up a game that started out on the right foot (See AoC).
Too many of today's players seem to think having slow leveling or hard to get items, etc are not fun. God forbid you have to work for anything. They are too use to getting everything handed to them and fail to see that working for an item brings immense gratification. MMO's were meant to be long epic adventures, but this new generation keeps trying to push them closer and closer to console games with easy game play, fast leveling and gear acquirement, etc.
Sony, believe me when I tell you that if you make it like old EQ with updated graphics, and some new stuff added in on top of that, you WILL get a large grateful community. Don't let cash cloud your creativity, it will come regardless.
As if they will read this, but here's to wishful thinking lol.
new day , new thought.
i'd love to see the eq religion mean some thing. eq. a paladin is good alignment. and in D&D world could never group with evil alignments. . so make good clerics and paladins impossible to group with evil. and make shardow knights and evil clerics impossible to group with good alignment. hmm i'd guess necromancers are evil also, i think eq2 had the good vs evil classes thing. i'd like to see with.
even better since we might want to play with our friends who are evil or good. make the EXP bonus better if all good or evil. or even better if all same faith, or even if all from same town "starter town born wise"
i'd like to see EXP bonus for evil characters killing good mobs if not in a group with good and vice-versa. just make picking our race and faction religion worth picking.
the more choices the more individual we will feel. more fun this way and more satifaction with question. picking groups. leveling.
i also agree with time concuming leveling. the game should take a year to get to make level casual playing wise.
eq1 took me 2 weekends just to get to 15th level. before POK came out.
one thing i hated about eq1 but was changed and i love it now. was we had a lot of levels that we got nothing but hp and mana for no spells. now we get at least one spell per lvl . this makes lvling a level worth it.
i'd like to see the AA thing early on. make it kinda the same as it is now but let us get a less version of the AA's at lower levels with less time on the benfit or spell or longer reuse time. eq2 i think we get AA's at level 11. and aa's are gained by quests vs mob killing i like that, as the game is everquest. so i think it would be great to have AA's based on quests, mabe some from mob killing. like reaching 100 kills of one type 500, 1000, 5000, 10000 ect. i think eq2 has something like that.
oh and let hope they beta test the hell out of it. we don't need a failed launch like vanguard. i like vanguard a lot of neat idea. but was missing so much and crashed way to much the first month.
test it and test it again with more players and then again and a again. 6 months of testing till you have 1000 beta testers on same sever enjoying the game , then launch it. and KILL WOW
I would also like the quests to be simular to what you had in the begining of EQ. No exclamation points. Part of an adventure was finding these quests.
And please put me down for beta testing. I was a trouble shooter for NEC for 20 years. Thanks for asking for our input reguarding this game. Looking forward to hearing more about this.
http://s36.photobucket.com/user/mhoward48/media/OnwYv97.jpg.html
YES! This is something I forgot to mention.
Most of the fun of EQ was finding not only hidden areas, but hidden NPC's that offered quests. I found nothing more irritating and bland than when MMO's started adding big exclamation points above NPC's heads. On top of that, having fantasy GPS on the map to show you where every quest is...for a lack of better words, sucked.
It was always more fun to be given hints, maybe even with possible landmarks added into those hints and finding it on your own. PLEASE don't add exclamation points and GPS to everything. Leave in some of the mystery and adventure. MMO's are suppose to be an adventure, not packman with dots to lead you to everything.
I have to agree with the GPS style that questing has turned into over the last few years being really poor. Gameplay is getting reduced to clicking on an npc, clicking the accept button, run to the premarked spot on the map and killing or clicking on whatever is at that location.
Some real quests would be nice again, but I think the age of spoiler sites has pretty much done away with the mystery aspect of mmos.
True.....to a point. When I played EQ back in the day those sites existed already. I ONLY used them if after several days of attempting a quest and still wasn't able to figure them out. THEN I'd peak to get a hint of what I was missing. It's all about a person's own willpower and self control on if they want to do as I did, not use them at all, or use them all the time and then bitch on the forums how the quest sucked...even though it was more than likely because they brought it on themselves lol.