http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=Newbie&message.id=102302


Hello fellow Norrathians,
In the months since EverQuest II has launched, we have seen an overwhelming response to the game. Here at SOE we've spent a great deal of time charting the future course of EverQuest II and laying out a roadmap for continuing to evolve the world of Norrath. I'd like to share that plan with you now.

The Team
Making a game like EQ II is an amazingly complex and wonderful thing to behold. It involves people from a variety of different areas of expertise such as design, sound, programming, art and of course a management team to make sure everything is coming together smoothly. During the course of the development of EverQuest II, the team grew to over 100 people in size (and that's just the development team, not including QA, CS, Operations and our Platform teams which brings the total to over 250.)

What typically happens when making an MMO is that the "Live Team" that runs the game after it launches is usually a smaller subset of the team that developed the game. That team usually works on a combination of live updates and expansion packs that come out 1-2 times per year.

After listening to feedback from our players, we've decided to make a change to the way we've done things in the past, and focus on growing Norrath in new and exciting ways. This is going to mean keeping the team at it's existing size or even growing it in order to make sure we can do this the right way.

We see content being added to the game in three distinct ways: Live Updates, Expansion Packs and something new called Adventure Packs.

Live Updates
We plan on keeping the team that's focused on live updates working on expanding the game both through new zones, npcs, quests, features, spells, skills and new gameplay additions as well as fixing any bugs or issues that arise. All of this will be provided at no additional cost in constant updates that will come on a frequent basis roughly 1-2 times per month, depending on what we're specifically working on. All of this will be laid out on our website so you can have visibility into the exciting additions we have planned. We will be very responsive to our player-base and we plan on incorporating a lot of the feedback you give us through the forums into these live updates. This will represent the core of how we evolve Norrath.

I wanted to also point out that with respect to these live updates we plan on increasing the amount of new content that we give away at no extra cost.

In our most recent update we added:


Two new dungeons
Over two hundred new spells and combat arts
User interface enhancements
Dozens of new quests
With respect to our international customers, our plan is simple - to put out the English version of any new content to all servers and localize it as quickly as possible. In many cases at the same time the update goes live. From what our international customers have told us, getting the new content and features in game is the most important thing and we've listened.

Expansion Packs
We plan on releasing 2 expansion packs a year. These expansion packs are going to be large, game altering additions to the game that will be sold both at retail and online via digital download. In the past, we've had one team that would work on an expansion pack, and then move on to the next one. This meant keeping a very fast paced schedule and the expansions smaller in scale due to the timeframe. We are changing the way we do things with EverQuest II. As of now we have two expansion pack teams that are working on different expansions... The first one is due to be released sometime in the second half of 2005, thus giving us more time to develop and add cool new things. In fact, you're also in for a pretty big surprise when you see our first expansion pack for EQ II sometime later this year. We aren't just focusing on the typical new content you've seen in past expansions to MMOs (our own included.) We're also focused on radically new gameplay elements that have never been seen before in online games.

For our international customers, we will be launching our localized expansions at almost the same time (hopefully within days) they are released in the US.

Adventure Packs
Adventure Packs are a new style of content that we are introducing to EverQuest II. You can think of them as being similar to "Modules" from traditional tabletop RPGs. They will be heavily story driven and themed adventuring areas. We will provide a part of each of these Adventure Packs, at no extra charge, to all of our players. This should give everyone the opportunity to see if a particular Adventure Pack is the kind of thing they are interested in. You'll be able to buy these at any time, since they will be delivered digitally. We plan on keeping the price point for these low... In fact, our first one will be just US$4.99.

To give you an example of what we're talking about here... Imagine a 5 level dungeon. The first level is a place that all players will be able to access and explore. In order to adventure to the lower levels of the dungeon, you'll need to purchase the Adventure Pack. This gives you the chance to see if this particular Adventure Pack is something you're interested in.

We plan on keeping the Adventure packs coming on a very regular basis... Somewhere between 2 and 4 per year depending on what exactly we're doing.

We also will be giving Station Access members these Adventure Packs as part of their Station Access subscription, provided they have been members for at least 2 months (more specifics about this will be out shortly).

For our international customers, we plan on releasing the English versions at the same time and the localized versions shortly thereafter. Everyone will be able to play at the same time, and the localization should be finished shortly thereafter.

So, as you can see we plan on some pretty major things to be happening in the world of EverQuest II. We believe investing in the future of Norrath and providing the best possible game and service is the right thing to do for our players.

We welcome any comments you may have.

Thank You,

John Smedley
President, Sony Online Entertainment

Saw it. Shows promise...but it's difficult to put any confidence into the team given the number of outstanding bugs still in play, game-breaking patches a la EQ1, and zone instability (Thundering Steppes and trade skill instances collapse nightly on Unrest).

Ewww and yeah I agree with you. Lets fix the stuff that is wrong now before we look to tomorrow. I got pretty aggravated last night with the TSkill zone crashes so I played WoW.

I'm sure they will fix them eventually though, sometimes I wish they would have just made Beta longer.

Lets just see how much further they can screw up the game :P They are doing a wonderful job of it so far.

I'm curious how you think they have screwed it up Erala?

I feel they have totally raped and maimed crafters but that's been since day one lol. Also the continual tweaking of the classes b/c one may deal slightly more damage than the other is driving me nutty.

While we're on the topic here's my list of what they need to fix:

1. be able to change your Call of Qeynos/Freeport to somewhere other than your starting city.

2. Fire the DBA in charge of Guild Mgt and find someone who can make columns hold 4 digits for status and allow sorts to actually work.

3. Be able to deguild across zones

4. Zone with your group and not into another instance....FOR REAL THIS TIME

5. Stop dicking with the market just let it thrive.

6. Remove purchaseable goods from NPCs that can be crafted too. (this will help the market and crafters more so than nerfing pristines)

7. Implement a guild bank

8. Zone stability

There are more I'm sure, I just can't think of them all right now.

What irks me is that they extended the delay before the Big Patch by two weeks to test the changes out, and they still put out a bug-ridden disaster. Add to this the deception: Not only did they not (from what I understand) put the tradeskill reaction buff changes on Test, but they didn't include the changes in the patch notes. That suggests a considerable disrespect for the player base as well as the product.

The thing they need to fix most are the broken quests. The game is called EverQuest, and is chock full of things to keep you busy. But with so many of them broken and with (alleged) solutions proven ineffective, you have to wonder if they even have a clue as to how their own damn game works.

Should call this EverQuest II: The Bard's Revenge. The whole game is like the EQ1 version of that class.

The quest thing hasn't bugged me much b/c I'm more of a craft and slash player. I do some of them but I'm not all gungho about it so it hasn't affected me much.

As for the changes and patch notes, I see lots of discussion about this on the SoE boards for and against it. I don't feel as strongly as you do about them not respecting the community. I actually see them implementing changes and dare I say listening somewhat. What I do think is that the developers are trying but some mgr some where is pushing shit when it ain't ready. I dunno, so far I'm happy with it just a few things bother me but that's like every game ;)

What I do think is that the developers are trying but some mgr some where is pushing shit when it ain't ready.
You mean like the game itself? ;)

And another thing! Last night my group pulled a named we hadn't fought before. As soon as it arrived in camp with its horde the encounter broke. That happened multiple times with other mobs and has happened before. Then the zone crashed (again). Hopefully the upcoming movelog will ease some of the pressure on the server. With Antonica and Thundering Steppes crashing at least twice a day and lack of instancing in places like RoV, overcrowding is a big issue on Unrest.

I enjoy the game, but I get a new gray hair every night.

Yikes!

And I thought Mistmoore was crowded, the biggest problem we have are the tradeskill zones crashing nightly.

I did finally make it to EL last night and had a blast, it's fun running around and everything you see is a red con.

BTW Thor...what level is your guild and do you do any writs? The new artisan ones are interesting. One of higher level crafters did a couple last night and reported this:


I've completed writs for level 43 item 3050 points and level 44 item 3100 points.
And the gold payout for completion is something like 17g 28s. Spiffy!

Tradeskill zones crash for us, too. Damn irritating when I want to get some carpentry done. EL and Zek are fun zones, but I'm trying to finish my RoV and manastone heritage quests before getting too involved in new places.

Our guild is level 8 but just started having organized writ nights. Beran (Korike from EQ1) is a top weaponsmith and got about 35g from a writ the other day, IIRC. Heritage quests seem to be the way to go though. 32k status points for finishing Dwarven Work Boots; if I finish manastone I may get even more. Fun stuff...when the zones are up.

Well, maybe by the time I get home, it will be fixed.


Or I will just buy WoW.

Wait....you get personal status for heritage quests?

/boggle

I never knew that, but then is that status also contributed to the guild?

Speaking of Manastone, any info on where that starts? :)

Status from writs and heritage quests (at least DWB, probably others) goes to both self and guild. I'm up to 40k status and have done like 3 writs. ;)

For DWB you have to kill a ratonga, I think it was, named Stilleto in Thundering Steppes. He hangs out in/near a pool that's by the southeast gnoll cave. But here's the catch, and it's the catch with some other quests, too (like Greater Lightstone): He can't be grey to you, because his quest (Stilleto's Orders) is a tradeable paper that drops froma chest. If he's grey, you'll need to buy the quest from someone else.

ok thanks for the tidbit, I'm only level 25 I doubt he's gray to me yet....well hope he's not.

nice on the status, I didn't know that heritatge quests give status and especialy not that it went to the guild pool. That's spiffy....I have like 102k but I have done a shitload of writs.

I don't remember Stilleto's level, but he won't be gray at 25. However, he's in a fairly dangerous area. If you're not kos to centaurs, set up on their side of the basin and pull gnolls til you have a clear path to the cave. Stilleto is around there.