Archived from groups: alt.games.everquest (More info?)
SOE released quite a large patch this week. You can read the entire
patch message here but I will highlight a few of the more interesting
features.
Lost Dungeons received a much requested selection for one of the four
mission types. Instead of hailing a wayfarer multiple times to receive
the most favorable adventure type, a group can now pick which type of
adventure they wish. While this decision will certainly be popular for
those who still adventure, it basically removes the assassination and
rescue missions from the list. It is widely known that the collection
and murder spree missions are much easier than the assassination and
rescue missions. It is unlikely that anyone would select a mission
that offers a harder difficulty for no gain in reward.
One of my problems with LDON is the lack of a story arc. I actually
prefer going on assassination missions because they are one of the only
adventure types that has a building plot and a final confrontation.
Boss mobs and anti-heroes are important not only in video games but
also in traditional fantasy. Walking into a dungeon and killing 58
skeletons or collecting 28 bone chips doesn't have the same energy as
going into a dungeon, killing 57 skeletons and then killing Ograth the
Skeleton King.
The most fun I had on an LDON adventure was against a vampire lord
known as Avatis. I remember every minute of that battle but I couldn't
describe the last hundred or so collection adventures I went on. A
better solution to the selection choice would be to make rescue and
assassination missions offer up a higher reward for their difficulty.
Giving boss mobs nice loot or rescued NPCs offering up a reward for
their return might have made the difference enough that people would
once again select them.
LDON is now two expansions back with a third on the way. It isn't
realistic to assume SOE will return and rebuild a much older expansion.
This change puts a band-aid on the problem of convenience.
SOE revamped two older zones this week including Mistmoore and Paw.
Both zones now harbor beasts above level 60. Walking into Mistmoore at
level 69, I was reminded of how I felt entering the dark castle at the
young age of 30. Mistmoore was always a very difficult dungeon and
well known to eat even the heartiest of adventures. It is nice to see
it return to its former danger.
Part of that danger, however, came from some of the quirks of the
dungeon. Mob pathing was never very good and it wasn't uncommon to see
enormous trains pour out of the castle and tear across the courtyard
killing anything that moved. That tradition remains today. It isn't
uncommon to see a mob run in the opposite direction and return with a
couple of friends when you pull it. From the item links floating
through our network of channels, the loot supports the reward, but it
would have been nice to have a zone whose danger didn't come from its
unexpected bug-based behavior.
I have yet to step foot into the new paw but from the equipment I see,
I imagine it is as difficult as Mistmoore was. Paw always had one of
the most difficult dungeon layouts that only the oldest old-world
dungeons had. Remember upper and lower guk? How about Kedge Keep? I
am sure old timers wax nostalgia about the difficulty of old-world
dungeons but few ever went deep into paw. Most groups found a cozy
corner near the zone and pulled what they could see. Only adventures
many levels above the zone population would dare to delve deep in and
even then they had a gate potion at the ready.
One very small fix in this patch that had me cheering out loud was a
fix to the font system. I always preferred Verdana over Arial as a
font but using such a wide font ended up breaking the item counts on
stackable items. This last patch fixed this problem. It was a small
but useful fix.
This patch did not implement the task changes I had hoped to see. We
will not see these new tasks and task improvements until the release of
Dragons of Norrath. It would have been nice to see these new tasks
before the release of the next expansion but improvements to the task
system at any time will hopefully help those who prefer to hunt solo.
This week EQ Stratics hosted a <a
href="http://eq.stratics.com/content/hoclogs/donhoc.php">developer
chat</a> with Travis Mcgearthy and Ryan Barker of the EQLive design
team to talk more about Dragons of Norrath. This was the first time
SOE discussed the details of the new Mission system with those outside
of the Dragons of Norrath beta. While a future preview of Dragons of
Norrath will go into more detail on this system and the other features
of DoN, I can make a few general statements on what we see so far.
Of all of the features of Dragons, none excite me as much as the
Mission system. The Mission system ties together the Omens of War task
system, the Gates of Discord expedition system, and the Lost Dungeons
adventure point system. Players pick a particular mission, one with
much greater variety than the four LDON types, and complete that
mission in an instanced part of a larger dungeon zone. Completing this
mission awards a sort of currency that can be used to purchase new
items.
There are a number of advantages to this system. They have
well-defined timeframes for completion, in this case, about an hour.
They reward every member of a group equally rather than favoring one
lucky party member with random loot. They offer gameplay variants
other than sitting and hunting at a particular camping spot.
For those of us who thought LDON was one of the great improvements in
Everquest, the Mission system answers our roar of requests. Unlike
LDON, however, Dragons features a lot of raid content (dragons!) and
general overland and dungeon non-instanced zone exploration.
We had a busy week and I expect a few more in the future. In the next
couple of weeks I will write a preview of Dragons of Norrath that will
go into further detail into these systems and the other features of
this expansion. In the mean time, lets hunt some vampires.
Loral Ciriclight
2 February 2005
loral@loralciriclight.com
SOE released quite a large patch this week. You can read the entire
patch message here but I will highlight a few of the more interesting
features.
Lost Dungeons received a much requested selection for one of the four
mission types. Instead of hailing a wayfarer multiple times to receive
the most favorable adventure type, a group can now pick which type of
adventure they wish. While this decision will certainly be popular for
those who still adventure, it basically removes the assassination and
rescue missions from the list. It is widely known that the collection
and murder spree missions are much easier than the assassination and
rescue missions. It is unlikely that anyone would select a mission
that offers a harder difficulty for no gain in reward.
One of my problems with LDON is the lack of a story arc. I actually
prefer going on assassination missions because they are one of the only
adventure types that has a building plot and a final confrontation.
Boss mobs and anti-heroes are important not only in video games but
also in traditional fantasy. Walking into a dungeon and killing 58
skeletons or collecting 28 bone chips doesn't have the same energy as
going into a dungeon, killing 57 skeletons and then killing Ograth the
Skeleton King.
The most fun I had on an LDON adventure was against a vampire lord
known as Avatis. I remember every minute of that battle but I couldn't
describe the last hundred or so collection adventures I went on. A
better solution to the selection choice would be to make rescue and
assassination missions offer up a higher reward for their difficulty.
Giving boss mobs nice loot or rescued NPCs offering up a reward for
their return might have made the difference enough that people would
once again select them.
LDON is now two expansions back with a third on the way. It isn't
realistic to assume SOE will return and rebuild a much older expansion.
This change puts a band-aid on the problem of convenience.
SOE revamped two older zones this week including Mistmoore and Paw.
Both zones now harbor beasts above level 60. Walking into Mistmoore at
level 69, I was reminded of how I felt entering the dark castle at the
young age of 30. Mistmoore was always a very difficult dungeon and
well known to eat even the heartiest of adventures. It is nice to see
it return to its former danger.
Part of that danger, however, came from some of the quirks of the
dungeon. Mob pathing was never very good and it wasn't uncommon to see
enormous trains pour out of the castle and tear across the courtyard
killing anything that moved. That tradition remains today. It isn't
uncommon to see a mob run in the opposite direction and return with a
couple of friends when you pull it. From the item links floating
through our network of channels, the loot supports the reward, but it
would have been nice to have a zone whose danger didn't come from its
unexpected bug-based behavior.
I have yet to step foot into the new paw but from the equipment I see,
I imagine it is as difficult as Mistmoore was. Paw always had one of
the most difficult dungeon layouts that only the oldest old-world
dungeons had. Remember upper and lower guk? How about Kedge Keep? I
am sure old timers wax nostalgia about the difficulty of old-world
dungeons but few ever went deep into paw. Most groups found a cozy
corner near the zone and pulled what they could see. Only adventures
many levels above the zone population would dare to delve deep in and
even then they had a gate potion at the ready.
One very small fix in this patch that had me cheering out loud was a
fix to the font system. I always preferred Verdana over Arial as a
font but using such a wide font ended up breaking the item counts on
stackable items. This last patch fixed this problem. It was a small
but useful fix.
This patch did not implement the task changes I had hoped to see. We
will not see these new tasks and task improvements until the release of
Dragons of Norrath. It would have been nice to see these new tasks
before the release of the next expansion but improvements to the task
system at any time will hopefully help those who prefer to hunt solo.
This week EQ Stratics hosted a <a
href="http://eq.stratics.com/content/hoclogs/donhoc.php">developer
chat</a> with Travis Mcgearthy and Ryan Barker of the EQLive design
team to talk more about Dragons of Norrath. This was the first time
SOE discussed the details of the new Mission system with those outside
of the Dragons of Norrath beta. While a future preview of Dragons of
Norrath will go into more detail on this system and the other features
of DoN, I can make a few general statements on what we see so far.
Of all of the features of Dragons, none excite me as much as the
Mission system. The Mission system ties together the Omens of War task
system, the Gates of Discord expedition system, and the Lost Dungeons
adventure point system. Players pick a particular mission, one with
much greater variety than the four LDON types, and complete that
mission in an instanced part of a larger dungeon zone. Completing this
mission awards a sort of currency that can be used to purchase new
items.
There are a number of advantages to this system. They have
well-defined timeframes for completion, in this case, about an hour.
They reward every member of a group equally rather than favoring one
lucky party member with random loot. They offer gameplay variants
other than sitting and hunting at a particular camping spot.
For those of us who thought LDON was one of the great improvements in
Everquest, the Mission system answers our roar of requests. Unlike
LDON, however, Dragons features a lot of raid content (dragons!) and
general overland and dungeon non-instanced zone exploration.
We had a busy week and I expect a few more in the future. In the next
couple of weeks I will write a preview of Dragons of Norrath that will
go into further detail into these systems and the other features of
this expansion. In the mean time, lets hunt some vampires.
Loral Ciriclight
2 February 2005
loral@loralciriclight.com
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