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[Column] EverQuest Next: 5 Questions for EQ:Next

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129

If there’s one game the MMO consumer really seems to enjoy, it’s playing “the next big thing” game.  Hopeful fans project their best wishes forwards onto the next game, jaded players are certain that the next game is just “the next WoW clone,” and fervent players are certain the next game is the much-prophesied “WoW killer.”  In each case, what brings us all together is looking at the next shiny toy.  With TESO, Wildstar, and now, Archeage released, the horizon is looking pretty barren.  EQ:Next is most likely the next big thing, but it’s still quite a ways off of being a thing.

Read more of Ryahl Smith's The List: 5 Questions for EQ:Next.

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Comments

  • Dreamo84Dreamo84 Member UncommonPosts: 3,713
    I think many of these questions are the big reason why development of EQNext is going to take A LOT longer than players would like it to. The amount of testing and problem solving they are going to have ahead of them is truly epic and I wish them a lot of luck.

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  • AldersAlders Member RarePosts: 2,207

    Every one of my questions revolves around the most important aspect to me which is how the game and classes play within a group or raid environment.  I don't care how awesome and visually appealing soloing a mob may be.

    At the end of the day, is this game going to turn into another GW2 everyone for themselves spam fest as far as PVE goes? While i enjoyed the benefits of the cross class combos that really helped make up for the lack of a trinity, i felt the lack of control was sorely missing.

     

  • st3v3b0st3v3b0 Member UncommonPosts: 155

    I'm shooting off the cuff, but I cannot imagine that SOE would not have already thought of these scenarios after launching multitudes of MMO's over the past 15-years.  

    "5. What happens when players actually show up?" and ". How does this not turn into an unplayable lag-fest?"

    From my understanding Rally Calls will not be a one-at-a-time event, but rather multiple spread across Norrath.  They've already stated there will be multiple starting "zones", but not as many as the original EQ.  So that will spread the population around to begin with.  If each starting zone had two or more that get's triggered based on populations it would be easy to not overload a particular one.  So the question is what happens if it does get overloaded?  It ends quickly and you move on.

    "But how does that mesh with an aoe-fest action combat?"

    You assume WAY to much.  They have put a focus back on a great aspect that many modern MMO's have forgotten about and that is "Control" (ala CC).  So I seriously doubt it will be an AOE fest if you want to survive the more complex encounters.  I'd also imagine that there will be some sort of trigger that if you run up to an event in play that it will make you decide which route you are going with instead of jumping in with two swords in your hands and spinning.  Why do I believe this?  Because input/feedback is needed in who is fighting who if they want to make it dynamic enough that it is a fun fight and not completely one sided.

    "How does an adaptive world of consequence handle NPC outposts and dungeons? "

    My first thought is to have it layered (or as they reference "Tiered").  You have an open world area where NPC vs. NPC. vs. PC has conflict and then past that area is more group oriented dungeons that will likely be instanced. Perhaps the struggle on the outside will determine the "goal" of the instance for example if Trolls hold power over the Frogloks or vice versa.

    This article was an OK read, but could have used more thought into the open ended questions.

  • xanthmetisxanthmetis Member UncommonPosts: 141
    great article and caused me to think deeper about eqn... Ill see  you outside freeport!
  • DauzqulDauzqul Member RarePosts: 1,982
    Can't wait for this game. A decent sandbox MADE IN AMERICA.
  • HighMarshalHighMarshal Member UncommonPosts: 414
    All I know is that as soon as alpha is announced, I will be right there helping them figure out these questions and more.
  • Nemesis7884Nemesis7884 Member UncommonPosts: 1,023
    it sounds all (too) good...ill wait...hopefully...
  • rounnerrounner Member UncommonPosts: 725
    The final question about how you can have optional pvp and yet align to a side other players may be fighting seems mutually exclusive to me.
  • ShaighShaigh Member EpicPosts: 2,142

    3. How does action combat work within a world of consequences?

    All you need are checkbox options in the interface where you can go to war with a specific neutral/friendly faction so that there is no friendly option. Tab-target games with neutral NPC-factions have these kinds of options just so that your next opponent isn't a friendly target.

     

    4. How do you avoid lag-fest

    Spread out your content so that you don't have 200 people within a 50 yard radius. Its not like raid-content of 100 players in the world is something new so I am sure they can make sure they don't run into this problem. Usually the biggest problem is particle-heavy spell animations so options of lowering animations is a good idea.

    Iselin: And the next person who says "but it's a business, they need to make money" can just go fuck yourself.
  • flizzerflizzer Member RarePosts: 2,454
    Im still not convinced this will be radically different than dynamic events in GW2.  Prior to GW2 launch dynamic events were lauded as amazing gameplay features. What happened?  The game launches and we replay almost the same content across every zone in an endless loop.  
  • mgilbrtsnmgilbrtsn Member EpicPosts: 3,430
    Really, in a more generic sense, those questions can be asked of any upcoming MMO.

    I self identify as a monkey.

  • NagilumSadowNagilumSadow Member UncommonPosts: 318
    Frankly this has been the only next gen mmo I have been waiting for, everything else is just a distraction and window dressing.
  • RyahlRyahl Member Posts: 47
    Originally posted by Shaigh

    3. How does action combat work within a world of consequences?

    All you need are checkbox options in the interface where you can go to war with a specific neutral/friendly faction so that there is no friendly option. Tab-target games with neutral NPC-factions have these kinds of options just so that your next opponent isn't a friendly target.

    Something of this nature is certainly needed.  The challenge, based on my read of EQN is the number of factions they hint at.  If you recall EQ1 (which seems to be their faction model), there are hundreds of intertwined factions.  

    On this topic to @2t3v3b0, I agree that control moves are the logical solution to this.  None of the control moves demonstrated in the last SOE videos would suffice though.  Each of them is embedded in another attack (typically an AOE).  Certainly there are moves they haven't shown off, but several of the classes that have been demonstrated seem very ill-equipped to play nice with NPC's.

    Ryahl - writer of eye-bleeders
    FFXIV Fansite | TSWGuides
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  • ArchlyteArchlyte Member RarePosts: 1,405

    I think the question about Action Combat was well put. The combat is so bad as it exists now in Landmark that it will take a lot of construction and overhaul to turn it into anything that will represent the game well.

    They should have built their combat to adapt to the players, but they seem to feel they have discovered gold, and are sticking to their semi-action targeting, limited button, movement mini-game. The view actually switches to mouselook automatically when combat starts, so you are not interfacing with your character as you normally do, but in Combat Mode.

    If that Farmer doesn't have the AI to run for his life, many a player will accidentally kill him by dropping his house on him or freezing a circle of ground into Ice before conjuring a firewall. The life of consequence could have some serious regret 

    MMORPG players are often like Hobbits: They don't like Adventures
  • meonthissitemeonthissite Member UncommonPosts: 917
    Originally posted by Alders

    Every one of my questions revolves around the most important aspect to me which is how the game and classes play within a group or raid environment.  I don't care how awesome and visually appealing soloing a mob may be.

    At the end of the day, is this game going to turn into another GW2 everyone for themselves spam fest as far as PVE goes? While i enjoyed the benefits of the cross class combos that really helped make up for the lack of a trinity, i felt the lack of control was sorely missing.

     

    Exactly my thoughts. The worst thing Arenanet did was kill their own trinity. Gone are the days of CC, and Support actually making a difference as choices in PVE.

    In PVE open world even other damage types are nerfed or riddled with problems like power builds or condition stacking.

    And forget about trap/trickster mechainics, gods forbid that someone might want to think when they fight and trick the AI.

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347

    If WildStar now counts as "action combat", then the expansion of games claiming it may be more of a classification issue than a change in mechanics.  WildStar's combat is closer to WoW than it is to even mildly actiony games such as Champions Online or Guild Wars 2, let alone a real action combat game like Spiral Knights.

    -----

    I don't see #4 ("unplayable lagfest") as being a serious issue unless SOE is stupid about how they implement it.  If they tell everyone in a zone, there's only one places in the zone where anything is happening and it's right here, then yeah, you get an unplayable lagfest.  Well, unless you take the WildStar approach of saying let's not actually have any players two months after launch.  But that's a problem of being aggressively stupid, not one intrinsic to dynamic events.  I doubt that it would be terribly difficult to have diminishing rewards once the number of players in an event goes over some threshold.

  • superconductingsuperconducting Member UncommonPosts: 871

    Right now, EQN is pretty much the ONLY thing that stands in the way of WoW.

    If EQN can't do it, I don't know what will. Really.

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  • Nemesis7884Nemesis7884 Member UncommonPosts: 1,023
    Originally posted by superconducting

    Right now, EQN is pretty much the ONLY thing that stands in the way of WoW.

    If EQN can't do it, I don't know what will. Really.

    meh, dunno...i think eqn is a good first step, but mmo devs need to start thinking outside the box...

  • goemoegoemoe Member UncommonPosts: 272
    He claims to not be a naysayer, but after all it is just a naysayer article. SOE has ideas of which many sound great and unless we get our hands on them and put them to the test, articles like this one are just naysayer stuff. Not worth reading.
  • LonzoLonzo Member UncommonPosts: 294
    I just hope that SOE is hopping off the action combat waggon. I think alot of gamers are sick of that already. It had its time bit for now we want a solid tab-targeting/tactical environment.

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  • daltaniousdaltanious Member UncommonPosts: 2,381
    Khm, "With TESO, Wildstar, and now, Archeage released, the horizon is looking pretty barren." is author of OP out of his mind? Three examples of failures and he talks about barren horizon?
  • kinkyJalepenokinkyJalepeno Member UncommonPosts: 1,044

    I'm just praying this game has all the qualities of the first two EQ MMO's...

     

    I really hope it takes a year or so to hit max level as well as it did me in EQ2...  I have been sorely tempted to start EQ2 from scratch again having paid money for failure after failure over the last 5 or 6 years...

    I miss my Gnome Fury and real quests (Heritage) as well as having my own shop in my room !!

    The dungeons were great as well *sigh

  • OzmodanOzmodan Member EpicPosts: 9,726
    Originally posted by Dauzqul
    Can't wait for this game. A decent sandbox MADE IN AMERICA.

    Sorry to burst your bubble, but it really is not a sandbox, just another themepark with some sandbox flavorings.

  • tordurbartordurbar Member UncommonPosts: 421

    Possibly the best article that I have read on MMORPG. Hit the nail on the head every time.

    Players are locusts in another sense. They concentrate. They zerg. It is the zerg that is going to give EQ:N the same problems as every other "our world is dynamic" MMO. Guild Wars 2 came about as close as I have seen in an AAA MMO to be minimally dynamic but the zerg rules especially in WvW. Either you join the zerg or perish (in pvp) or, in pve, you have no chance of stopping what the zerg will do to the environment.

    The irony of the zerg is that this reflects the real world. The side with the biggest numbers almost always wins (starting the cavemen versus the sabertooth tiger). So EQ:N will be more realistic but when the zergs start wiping out everything - will it be fun? For me that is a rhetorical question. Will it be fun? No.

  • tordurbartordurbar Member UncommonPosts: 421
    Originally posted by Lonzo
    I just hope that SOE is hopping off the action combat waggon. I think alot of gamers are sick of that already. It had its time bit for now we want a solid tab-targeting/tactical environment.
     

    Agree. I am hoping that the failure of TSO and Wildstar to get WOW numbers will encourage SOE to back off of action combat.

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