EverQuest II: April 29th AMAA Recap
Here is a recap of the Tuesday, April 29 EQ2 AMAA Reddit session!
Q: "WHY IS PVP BEING IGNORED?"
A: "PvP is definitely not being ignored. Throughout the year so far, we have already done a few balance changes, added Warzones, and addressed some concerns from the community in March.
In regards to the Nagafen server, as quite a few people have asked, we're looking into resolutions. AND for BGs, we'll have an update in the future, so stay tuned.
If you have something specific you'd like to ask about PvP, please do so! We are all ears. I mean, that's why we are responding to as many of your questions as we can. :D"
Q: "Are you going to start making new zone layouts rather than recycling old ones? aka Vesper isles = barren sky Obol plains = lopin plains the jungle before lopin plains = feerot hive = Guk."
A: "We have several brand new never before seen zones coming with the expansion this year, including 2 new and unique overlands. There are always new zones with new layouts for each expansion."
Q: (continuation of the Isle of Refuge question) "Will you then add new starting zones any time soon?"
A: "As much as we enjoy them, no new ones are in the current plans either. Starting zones (and their associated city) take a LOT of work, both from art and design, and although altoholics tend to see them, over and over again, it is a short lived experience. Couple that with Heroic characters starting at level 85, and the bang to buck ratio leaves quite a bit to be desired."
Q: "I have a simple Lore related question... but it's related to future content so I don't know if you'd be able to answer. Will the Akheva be making an appearance in EQ2?"
A: "You wanna know about Luclin! Trying to be all sneaky... Well, I can say that anything is possible!"
Q: "I know you get sick of this question but here goes: Will we ever see the starter islands again? I realize they are not the starter experience you desire but maybe a way to do it after the new player has done Halas/Neriak as is currently done? Or, maybe the same zone but revamped to current content and story. Even better, the starting quest hub of an islands expansion where we eventually get to see Kithicor, Highpass, Fayspire, etc"
"At the very least, a prestige home/guildhall. Any form would be nice. The islands are such a nostalgic part of the game for many and their absence is missed. Thank you."
A: "Over the years the number of refugees being found by the Far Seas Trading Company during their travels or being washed ashore on the Isle of Refuge slackened. Then suddenly, and rather mysteriously, the Far Seas Trading Co. stopped honoring the Pact of Tserrin. They stopped transporting anybody to the cities. Although they had claimed that there just were no more being found, many found this suspicious. Was there another reason? Perhaps one day we will be able to return to the Isle of Refuge and find out for ourselves!"
A: "We never say never, but we have no plans to go back there. I think we're looking at offering it as a prestige home..."
Q: "These are probably newbie questions, but as I am somewhat of a newbie to EQ2, I shall forge ahead. I just don't understand AA's. I go through the motions and select the Solo option most of the time. Is there a AA's For Dummies page out there that I could read?"
"Second, while I like the Freeblood characters I have created, apart from a few quests in Freeport (teens-twenties levels), I haven't really seen any quests that tell me the story of the Freebloods. I get that we're vampire daywalkers and that there are renegades out there, but where can I go to pick up some quests that further the storyline?"
"I enjoy tradeskilling and tinkering, but what do the City Tokens that I sometimes pick up on writs do for me? Someone said that I can spend them at City Faires, but what does that mean? And the last time I tried to get into Freeport, the guards turned me over their knees and gave me an Experience Debt spanking that I never forgot, so I haven't even tried to return. If I can only spend them on faires at Freeport and I get killed whenever I try to visit Freeport, then that doesn't really help me."
"Why do NPC's offer quests to solos that are clearly meant for raids? I was trying to complete a couple of quests inside Kaladim and can't, not even with a good Mercenary and a pet. I keep getting my butt kicked by a group of nasties that usually inhabit the very rooms I need to be in to complete the quest. Just wondering. I never did really get the group thing down when I was playing old EQ, so I just solo my way through EQ2, but if I must group, then I must. But it's a little hard to do so when all people want for groups is level 95's, particularly when I am just a lowly 40 or less. What about some dungeon quests that can be solo'd, either with just yourself or with the help of a merc? That would be very nice."
A:
- AA builds are a fairly in depth question, as there are so many options to fit specific playstyles, and classes. The class forums are a great place to get help about your specific class once they are available again. The pre-built templates were made specifically with an eye towards leveling, however it bears repeating that different playstyles make some choices less appealing than others.
- Have to pass on this one, lore is something that mystifies me!
- City tokens can also be sold directly for status at a status merchant, however you will need to remove them from your currency window to do so.
- We don't restrict the type of quest you can get based off of your current group makeup, as many players would rather pick up quests before forming groups. Many contested dungeons are designed with group play in mind, though that guideline has loosened much over the years.
Q: "I have noticed that the merc my fury has still doesn't keep his health, every time i fly his health is full then i land and his health is half gone. i have to heal him constantly, it also happens when one of my other toons if grouped up with a fury. When do you think this might be fixed? Thanks :)"
A: "The issue you are seeing is from when the merc leaves the world while you are flying. When he returns to the world, he has to re-apply his buffs, which include a fairly significant HP boost in current zones. It's something we are working on, but I don't have an ETA."
Q: "Concerning crafting, I was wondering if there could be a way to add a way to craft two(2) items to the drop down menu for Mass Production as to expedite the ability to craft jewelry which three slots require two items."
"Also, I had an idea of being able to craft a tier of armor, jewelry, spells by setting up a special 'crate' where a crafter, for example, could craft a complete tier of scout spells for a ranger, or mc52 armor for a tank, or mc72 jewelry for a mage; something to that effect. Maybe make a crafting HQ in order to have this ability to expedite the crafting experience."
A: "Two items isn't really mass production, and adding every amount would make the drop down extremely long. We don't have any plans to add any more options at this time."
"We've kicked around the idea of crafting a tier a spells before, and it is something I would love to implement, however there are some logistical issues to do it correctly without extensive amounts of new code. I'm not a fan of poor man versions of something instead of doing it correctly the first time but we'll see."
Q: (continued from earlier PvP being ignored comment) "The PVP gear is far too expensive and the tiers are far too spread out that it discourages any new players. Why can't there be a heroic character solution to PVP?"
A: "We have recently corrected a bug that allowed toughness and lethality to grant far more benefit then was intended. We're also looking into a way to ease the entrance for new PvPers, as the current toughness and lethality curves were intended to counter the higher raw stats available from PvE gear. We'll be making some adjustments in the next few weeks."
Q: "Any chance we could get more loading screen art? Seen all the current ones a million times and I think it would be a refreshing change."
A: "Absolutely. There's a huge set in-game but most rotate on a per-zone/expansion basis so you end up seeing only a handful if you play mostly in newer zones."
Q: "@Bunji_SOE as a Build Master, Can you give any insight into your building process? Where do you get your source material when designing genera specific builds?"
A: "Actually, I came onto the dev team around exp 7, so the majority of the build processes were already in place (so I've been focusing on tweaking / adding scripts as needed and updating build boxes when possible). I will say though, IMO, that the core of any solid build process is good source control software :) That, and having several different environments to build on :P"
Q: "Is there any chance of us getting some increase in inventory space? Bigger bags, more bank slots, more inventory slots, more vault slots, something... anything? At least could we get the LORE tag removed from the Box of Endless Loyalty?"
"It'd be a great idea overall and would prompt a bunch of people I know, including myself, to spend more on SC. As it is, I can't buy fluff stuff on SC anymore because I've run out of room! I've been playing the game since launch, and have participated in a ton of live events, most of which came with appearance gear. Add in some items for nostalgia's sake, and you run out of room in a hurry. My vault, bank, broker, and inventory are full. I have maybe 20 slots in one bag to play with. I've had to unattune a ton of items and made alts for the sole purpose of storing those items. For appearance gear I moved to alts, I can't use it on my main, because they're attunable... I'd have to unattune them all if I ever wanted to change my appearance."
"I'd be glad to pay SC for significantly bigger bags, a la EQ1. This in turn would let me buy more appearance items from the SC store. I don't really see a reason not to give us more storage space at this point."
A: "Increased inventory space has performance implications. And from the perspective of someone who's played a lot of MMOs, I can never have enough space -- being given more will just lead to me asking for more when I fill that up. A more preferable approach would be to figure out other ways of storing things that are currently in your inventory."
Q: (followup) "Is there anything currently in the works toward that end?"
A: "Nothing concrete yet. We have to identify where it makes sense to do so and how to implement it. It's something we're aware of, though."
