Loral's Evil Agenda, Summer 2007
by Loral on August 11, 2007
It has been 3 years since I first began writing Evil Agendas. It seemed the best way to clarify and simplify the areas I felt would best help Sony improve Everquest. The game has changed greatly since then. Five other Evil Agendas have come out since then. Sometimes the items presented are addressed, sometimes not. Today we look again at the elements that would best help Everquest improve this year.
There are a few factors to consider before attempting to define what might best improve the game. For one, for who are these improvements meant to help? Is there an attempt to bring in new players? Is there an attempt to draw from those who no longer find World of Warcraft satisfying? Is the intent to help keep hard core players continuing to play? Should Everquest continue to refine and polish their high-end raid game? Without knowing the exact strategy SOE employs towards Everquest, I can only guess at what improvements might best help the game meet its goals.
The five areas of improvement listed below assume a desire to bring old players back in, keep existing players playing, and bring in new players where possible. I have stated many of these items before, but I feel they are important enough to keep currently in mind.
1. Rebuild the Plane of Knowledge.
The Plane of Knowledge continues to be one of the top three, if not the most popular, zone in Everquest. The current architecture for the zone is six years old. While SOE has attempted to make new city zones since then such as Abysmal Sea and Crescent Reach, none of these zones has drawn any significant number of players.
Rebuild the Plane of Knowledge and continue to use it as a hub zone for Everquest players of all levels. Build neighborhoods that remind players of the heritage of their characters. Add quests and instances for short duration events at all levels. Make it look good enough and perform well enough to remind us that this game isn't suffering from an eight year history.
2. Add new Player Models.
The existing player models continue to be a legacy from the Everquest of old. The poorly performing and graphically broken Luclin models end up pushing many players back to the original Everquest models developed in 1998. Although we saw a lot of board traffic discussing a new human model, that model, originally discussed a year ago, has not yet been released. Find a faster and more efficient way to release high performance and good looking player models.
3. Focus on 30 to 60 minute events.
With so many newer games out, the tolerance for long-duration events including single group quests, missions, and raids, has gone down. Many players no longer accept long duration 90 minute to two hour events from the older expansions. Shorter events let players get in, have fun, progress, and leave within a time period that is more acceptable to the rest of their lives. Newer games have shown these durations to be possible, rewarding, and fun. Tune these events towards the bulk of the players who go through them, not to those who are able to do them the fastest. Tuning content around the highest power and fastest players ends up hurting the event for everyone else.
4. Reduce flagging restrictions and Remove flags for zones older than two years.
Flagging high-end zones is intended to increase the amount of time it takes high-end raiding guilds to reach the end of any given expansion. When the flags are put in place and tuned, they are tuned towards guilds who raid five to seven days a week for four to six hours. When those expansions become forgotten by those high end guilds, a new tier of guilds, guilds who play fewer nights a week for less hours, then have to overcome those flagging restrictions only with less actual play time.
Remove flag restrictions on end-zones two years after the expansion is released. This will add new life to these zones and help guilds with less time or lower powered players progress quick enough to enjoy the higher-end content in newer expansions. Making a three day raiding guild go through the same steps as a seven day raiding guild strictly because that seven day guild got through content so fast doesn't make sense. Flagging continues to be considered nothing more than a burden to overcome; not something fun and enjoyable.
5. Reduce filler and focus on fun.
Recent expansions revealed more and more content containing large amounts of unentertaining and time consuming encounters. Both single group missions, flagging requirements, and raid zones have become filled with creatures strictly to slow players down. They do not add to the enjoyment of the event. While a certain amount of such encounters are required, they should be reduced from their current number. Going from Tacvi to Anguish to Demiplane have shown an increase in filler mobs. Single group missions also show a large amount of filler mobs before reaching the climax of an adventure. Instead of offering interesting encounters before a climactic battle, it becomes drudgery. Kill X minions to kill 60 minutes before we reach the event we actually intended to play. Reduce tedium and increase fun.
Loral Ciriclight
11 August 2007
loral@loralciriclight.com
Comment Posted by: Aarkan on August 12, 2007 01:51 PM
I really feel that EverQuest is lost to new players and to returning players who are less than level 70 without a ton of AA's. Currently to compete you need to be max level in great gear with tons of AA's and my level 62 ranger with 6 AA's doesn't ever stand a chance of catching up. I hate to say it but they would have to seriously streamline the progression from levels 1-70 and VASTLY increase the AA gain for a point as well as removing flags like you were saying. So then people could get up to 70 and gear up in the planes and GoD and OoW zones and then move from there to newer zones like Demiplane and Blood and everything else and then from there to the new, neglected, content.
Though until that happens and even if that happens I'm going to play City of Heroes or World of Warcraft or Guild Wars or EverQuest 2 where I can get right back into the game and actually progress each time I log on.
Comment Posted by: Nightbringer on August 12, 2007 05:17 PM
I disagree on needing to be at least level 70 with a ton of AA's to have fun. I'm an a big fan of untwinked alts and will frequently spend time on a low level alt in a random old world zone and have a blost (last night my wife and I had fun in North Karana with our level 15 necros). The need for max level, huge AA's, and uber gear exist only for those who want to rush to the end without enjoying the journey.
I've enjoyed the revamped newbie zones, especially Misty Thicket and South Ro. New character models to go along would be much appreciated.
A revamp of the PoK would be very interesting as well. To bring this zone up to date and perhaps incule it with the trial membership so people could see some of the real game.
Comment Posted by: Aarkan on August 12, 2007 06:05 PM
The lower levels are still highly underpopulated with entire expansions being unused. The controls are antiquated and so is the quest system. It's far too difficult to progress to the level where most players are and to even enjoy new content other than the revamps. I used to be excited to hear about the new expansion content even after I stopped playing but now it's just disappointing.
Comment Posted by: Coray on August 12, 2007 11:24 PM
A mixed bag for sure. Plane of knowledge revamp won't keep players playing (same with all the other revamps really). Flags I agree with, it's ridiculous but I'm not sure how it matters much, again with keeping people playing.
I agree with drudgery although I have to point out that you were a big fan of LDON, the origin of a lot of cookie cutter garbage to follow.
What I'd like to see would be almost episodic content in a game like EQ. A lot of other MMOGs do this, where basically every month or so you release a little bit of new content, that say follows a story line and encourages people to follow and PARTICIPATE.
Quests similar to epic quests (although not as vague and aimless as they tend to be) and stories that encourage people to do things by themselves, in groups or with raids, and even things which bring disparate groups together for a common goal.
The basic idea is to get people back into the game and involved, to get people talking about the game, and really, do something that hasn't been done well at all in a fantasy game.
Comment Posted by: Teremar on August 13, 2007 01:58 AM
But you've got someone to play with, Nightbringer, and most new/returning players won't (at least not at their level). Whether players care about being level 70 and having a ton of AAs or not, that's where the other players are--not to mention most of the modern content.
Blizzard has said they want people to level up and play in the new expansions. They're even considering speeding up the leveling process--and if you've ever compared leveling speeds in EQ and WoW, you know that's saying something. But they're determined not to leave people behind, and that's smart. Hopefully SOE is paying attention.
Comment Posted by: Pants on August 13, 2007 05:09 AM
I really think these all are excellent ideas that should have been implemented years ago. If they had been maybe EQ wouldn't have lost as many people. The problem is that at this point I don't believe these changes would really garner many new or returning players or at all. It's too late to see some kind of resurgence of EQ's population to numbers like years ago. Like it or not EQ is old news now and there is too much newer competition. Still these changes could keep the current population interested in the game longer. The question Sony probably asks themselves is, are changes like this worth the time and money investment or would that better be spent on more content, or even better spent in other games? The answer seems to have been it isn't worth it, or we would've seen these changes a long time ago.
They made a critical mistake of underestimating just how good of a game Blizzard had, as did a lot of other EQ fanboys who loved posting it on various forums how WoW was going to flop. They should have taken WoW's development more seriously in 2003-2004 and did more to modernize EQ to stay competitive instead of releasing one mediocre expansion after another in their oh so important 1 expansion every 6 months schedule. Live and learn I guess.
Comment Posted by: Ghost of Zek on August 13, 2007 05:17 AM
I almost hate to say it Loral, but I think for the first time ever I find myself completely in agreement. I’m not sure that’s a good thing, or possibly just a pre-curser to the apocalypse.
I’d like to expand on one idea you made. Regarding re-building PoK. I think SOE really needs to go all out. Rebuild it in an epic grand style reminiscent of what was done to create Qeynos or Freeport for EQII. The reason being, SOE’s effectively killed off racial lore in the current game. There’s really no reason for a new character to journey to their racial homeland (with the exception of drakin). By making PoK a multi cultural hub, with different racial areas, SOE would finally make a step back in the direction of immersion and roleplay.
Comment Posted by: Skuz Bukit on August 13, 2007 08:01 AM
I agree with a lot of your points.
1) PoK as the central & most-used hub in the game this arguably needs to be the most impressive zone in the game, the "racial sections" idea would definitely lend it a more immersive quality, though I think the zone itself would need to be larger to incorporate that idea, the geometry & style of each racial zone would need to alter quite radically though it should still retain that "centre of learning" feel.
2) player models, I'd arguably place higher on the agenda simply as they are seen on a continual day-to-day basis & form a huge part of everquest's visual identity, these need to be done, even though artistically it's very tricky to please all, I think the original models had very good animation, luclin models mostly had decent looks, & a combination of the old anim realism & flow with updated models would be a good move, this will provbably be the most time intensive aspect of the overall eq revamp & probably the most fraught with pitfalls.
I think the "levelling" game needs to be looked at & a fun but fast route to the end game designed, more solo content for lower level players needs to be available , purely because other players aren't around at the low levels, or if they are, they are almost alway's someone's twink getting powerleveled.
I think the 30-60 minute "fastquest" or "speedmission" can work, but I wouldn't want these to all be stand alone parts, i'd love to see a lot them being incorporated into arcing quests, so that a large quest can be completed in small chunks, the ancient werewolf skull quest being the best example.
Comment Posted by: anonymous on August 13, 2007 12:44 PM
POK does not need rebuilt at all.
The others stuff I can agree with to varying amounts.
Comment Posted by: Redhenna on August 13, 2007 02:42 PM
I find myself rather surprised that I cannot argue against any of the changes you suggest. They are all worthwhile changes. I can argue against the importance of some of them, but outside of the PoK revamp, I think for the most part they are all important ideas to improve EQ.
The PoK revamp idea, while not bad, I just don't see it as being important. Sure, PoK could look better(but potentially be laggier), but I don't see it as a change that would keep players, or bring in new players. It would be nice, but way down on priority list.
New player models would certainly help new players become attached to their avatars, which would help keep new players playing. It would also help improve the overall look of the game, which is not a bad thing.
30 to 60 minute events are good for alot of players, and a focus on them is good, but that should not preclude some longer events, as there is still a significant playerbase who do enjoy long, hard events. I think it is important for SoE to be as inclusive going forward whaen it comes to new expansions and content. They realy should try and give everyone from the most casual, to the most hardcore, fun options for their playstyle.
Flagging was not an issue for me, but I can't see a problem with reducing/eliminating flag requirements on old zones. Sure, I did the flagging the hard way, but if some one now can get into those zones without it, it really does not effect me. I do think that would be a real boost in the arm for lower midlevel raid guilds.
While I don't really mind killing my way through a zone to get to the event I want to do, I know it does bug some people. I think that some of this does serve a purpose, I can't see much wrong with reducing it.
I think, to me, the number one thing SOE needs to do, is when they think about a new expansion, they should think first, and primarily, about new content, not new features. The new zones, the new mobs, the new toys, spells and gear, the new raids and group events...these things are what will keep people playing, not some bleh feature like auras, or dstructable objects, or power sources, or whatever.
Comment Posted by: xsi on August 13, 2007 07:44 PM
The one thing that unfortunately would cause issues for the PoK revamp is the fact that there seems to still be an inordinate # of people playing EQ on older systems, and these systems chug pretty badly in newer zones. As PoK remains the hub of the known world, this is problematic; users can hardly avoid PoK as they could, for example, the Commonlands revamp.
Additionally, there are already numerous people over the past few months complaining about having to zone into PoK from the guild lobby to get to the bazaar. Their rationale? It means they have to sit through the comparatively long zonetime of PoK just to traverse to a different zone. (It takes me ~10-20 seconds, depending on computer, but it apparently takes far more for them.) For PoK to properly incorporate the racial neighborhoods as suggested, (all of which I think is a GREAT idea), the zone would have to be even larger than it is now, which would increase zone times significantly. (You could of course spin the neighborhoods off into their own mini-zones, but that seems pointless, as they would end up as ghost towns, just like the normal cities, most of which are, after all, only one zone away from PoK.)
All of that said, I'd love for SOE to:
(a) make PoK a buff-suspended zone, just like the lobby and guild hall, (heck, add PoT too)
(b) revamp PoK as suggested, with racial neighborhoods, and a better layout that is less confusing to new players.
To do so, however, they will have to accept that they will be pissing off those players still chugging along with older computers.
As far as the rest of the Agenda goes, I agree on most points. In particular, I remain a huge proponent of new player models, as I have been for years, (basically since the aborted animation revamp in the post-luclin era). One thing that Loral did not really touch on, however, is that the new human models (which continue to languish on test) are HORRIBLE. It's a -good- thing that they have not been promoted to live, as they are a terrible, terrible attempt. I'd love to see slightly better proportioned luclin models with aniamtions on par with the original models, (or, better yet, EQ2 animations... look at someone wielding a 2hb in that game!), but they really missed the mark with both the drakkin and their attempt at humans.
Supposedly, there will be a new player model with or around SoF, so we'll see if they have learned a lesson from the negative feedback provoked by the human models.
Comment Posted by: Zolina on August 13, 2007 08:34 PM
I definitely think they should remove the flagging requirements for Vex Thal and Planes of Power at minimum. Those are great zones for learning raids. Gates of Discord would also be a good idea, but I'd hold off on Omens of War and the later expansions for a while yet. Just make the backflags a little more friendly for Demiplane and above.
Comment Posted by: Aarkan on August 15, 2007 11:38 PM
Does anyone know where I can see a picture of these new human models? I searched all over but can't find it. Thank you.
Comment Posted by: xsi on August 16, 2007 04:22 AM
There are a # of pics of the models in the stickied multi-thousand post 'New Human Models' topic in the Veteran's Lounge forum. :)
Comment Posted by: DT on August 16, 2007 04:57 PM
I am an old player that returned... been playing for about a month now.
Something that I would like to see added (along with the POK zone change) is where I could hand a "Quest" item to an NPC (or 5 or 6 NPC's) and they give me the item back and say "ah! I have heard rumors that someone in is looking for this". Go to the city hand that to someone else and get the item back and "ah! is looking for that" (or worst case get sent to another city, because the POK person was wrong). This method would at least point us in the right direction on where to start... instead of just destroying the object or trying to look it up on a website.
Comment Posted by: Aarkan on August 16, 2007 11:48 PM
DAMN! Those models are AWFUL! Ugh! Just friggin.. patch in the Vanguard models ffs. Even though they're only like half EQ style they'd still be way better than that.
Comment Posted by: boo on August 17, 2007 03:50 AM
I didn't like the WoW models at all when the game first came out because they were too cartoonish for my taste. However, I got used to the fluid animations associated with those models and now find the EQ models unbearable. The new human models look like another step in the wrong direction.
Comment Posted by: Pharone on August 17, 2007 06:03 PM
I have played Everquest off and on for the past 8 years, and I have to say that I am fed up with buying expansions and barely getting anything out of them. I own expansions for EQ1 that I have never seen any of it's content.... and not because I didn't want to, but simply because by the time I got one of my characters to a level where I could go there, nobody else was going there. Don't get me wrong, I love EQ1, but anymore I feel like the expansions are all throw-away content. They are only good for 1 year maximum before the majority of the populace stops visiting those expansions. I don't know how to fix this issue, but it really is discouraging.
Comment Posted by: xsi on August 18, 2007 03:24 PM
If nothing else, the switch to one expansion a year makes it more likely that you will be able to experience some of the content before it becomes passe. SoF being a 70+ expansion is a bit of a downer, in that regard, but hopefully, will offer some stuff of interest for the other players as well.
Comment Posted by: Winyder on August 20, 2007 11:12 AM
The AA gap is what will keep most new players of EQ from giving it a good run. To be the "best" at what they do, they'll need to have the extra power, mitigation, mana, health, speed, accuracy, utility, etc, that the mountains of AA's old players have. Currently, until you get to the end of the level curve...there isn't a way to get them. When I played ( which was only about 7 months ago now ), when leveling a new toon, you didn't stop at 51, 60, 65, 70, or 75 to get AA's...you pushed to max level, and then begain the grind.
At that point, this isn't a game, it's work. More over, it's work you're paying someone else for the "pleasure" of doing.
If SoE wants to actively pull in new players, or keep older players who have reached their limit and want to try a new race/class...there needs to be an Equalizer(tm).
Just what that is, and how not to have it be misued could be another discussion entirely. Something to consider for the Agenda, or make a subpoint of the "Less Filler, More Fun" section.
Comment Posted by: Aarkan on August 20, 2007 11:33 AM
One idea I was thinking of would be to change the way AA exp is gained completely. Make it so that AA exp is always on in addition to your regular exp and once you get to the max level you only gain AA. Also retune some of the trees so that characters can start gaining AA at level 20 and can spend some of it and then can get to new tiers at 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 etc.. So when a new player goes from 1-80 they'll have some AA's and not be completely behind. They'll also improve their power in different ways as they're leveling up.
Comment Posted by: none of your on August 22, 2007 02:47 AM
re new character models, i used to want these years ago loral, when i still played EQ, but it was you yourself, that would always go against the idea, stating for many reasons they would be to expensive, well guess what, EQ has even less people now than then, so there is now no chance of getting them. and your partly to blame, because this website used to be very respected, i cant count the number of times things would be written on mobhunter then soe would impliment them not long after, shrug. just my observation, i now play wow, but dont have as much fun as i used to in the old days of eq. but there you go
Comment Posted by: Loral on August 22, 2007 01:37 PM
The Evil Agenda Was Delivered:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeshea/1203818543/
Comment Posted by: Alan on August 23, 2007 01:49 PM
It tasted a bit bland, but was filling enough.
A
Comment Posted by: Redhenna on August 25, 2007 02:47 AM
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Comment Posted by: Loral on August 25, 2007 09:59 AM
No matter how much we try - the spammers always seem to win.
Comment Posted by: Nolrog on August 26, 2007 08:34 AM
>>Making a three day raiding guild go through the same steps as a seven day raiding guild strictly because that seven day guild got through content so fast doesn't make sense. Flagging continues to be considered nothing more than a burden to overcome; not something fun and enjoyable.
While I don't mind reducing the flagging requirements, I don't think it's necessary to do it so drastically.
The three day a week guild will have the benefit of 2 years worth of expansions, level increases, AAs and gear. That allows them to consume that content as fast (if not faster) than the 7-day a week guild did when it was brand new (especially now that they will have 2 level increases in that time.)
Comment Posted by: Aderol on September 3, 2007 09:08 AM
Aarkan -
>I really feel that EverQuest is lost to new >players and to returning players who are less >than level 70 without a ton of AA's.
Exactly. If SOE would just do some free market research by reading what gets posted in their product reviews on amazon or ign this would be the overriding sentiment. You would have to be insane or have an incredible amount of free time to even attempt starting eq now.
Nightbringer:
>I disagree on needing to be at least level 70 >with a ton of AA's to have fun. I'm an a big fan >of untwinked alts and will frequently spend time >on a low level alt in a random old world zone and >have a blost (last night my wife and I had fun in >North Karana with our level 15 necros). The need >for max level, huge AA's, and uber gear exist >only for those who want to rush to the end >without enjoying the journey.
You shouldn't have to bring your own group to the game to have a group. I just attempted to get back into EQ and found I would have to solo for a bulk of my playing time for months. Sure... some people might be /anon or /role, but when I was playing at 5pm on a Saturday there were only 5 players outside of the bazaar in the 10-20 range. Trying to form groups over /tell or /lfg just didn't work. I rolled up a necromancer so I could do something with the month I paid for. So far I've duoed with a druid and a beastlord on different occasions. I saw one non solo class attempting to level on their own. The rest were being PLd. Maybe thats why you both chose to make necros...
If your business isn't growing, its dying. My personal theory is that the EQ code base is such a horrid mess (They never did fix the boats) that SoE wants EQ to die. EQ2 is probably cheaper to maintain, run, develop content for, etc.
If SoE really wanted to bring in new players they would be offering deals to new players. All expansions for $20 is a nice first step. The second step would be a first year introductory rate... Say $40-$50 for the first sixth months. Being cheaper is about the only advantage I can imagine EQ presenting to new players. Kinda like the $10 software at Walmart.
New models won't help EQ continue. People have to be able to come back into the game at any level and find camaraderie and community. At this point, I think there just isn't a way to make that happen. SoE has ruined the EverQuest 1 brand. IMHO it is associated with shitty expansions that have a few trinkets tossed out there so everyone will buy it. An incredibly long and increasingly impossible grind to get to where the "real" (read raid) game is. The perception that EQ 1 is dying also doesn't help reel players in. SoE needs to fix the brand image problems with EQ before they can really think about other fixes being viable.
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