I've been spending some time today in between classes doing something really important: reading about Everquest. College is boring and easy, so I'd rather do some more productive and long-lasting with my life like play computer games.
Anyway, I'm drifting off topic and I haven't even started yet.
From all the reading that I've been doing on the Planes of Power it seems that Verant is really trying hard to fix the past mistakes that they've made. My experience with Everquest over the last two years has been that you have your hardcore players, and then you have your occasional players. Then you have your "level-level-level-I-wanna-go-higher-give-me-new-tougher-stuff-to-kill-I-wanna-kill-more" players vs. your "this-is-kind-of-neat-I-want-to-stay-where-I'm-at-and-explore-new-stuff-and-never-level-again-players".
Personally I think that over the last few months VI has done a tremendous job trying to find places for all of the above categories, and it looks like PoP is going to get even better!
I for one like the feeling that I got when I first started playing EQ several months after it was released. It felt like this really neat place to adventure, way out alone without lots of people around. It was like being an active character in a good fantasy novel. This changed over the last year or so to where the zones that used to be really cool to explore and level in at lower levels (like Lake of Ill Omen) became super packed zones. When Luclin was released I really enjoyed how it made world travel so much easier, but yet it also gave lower level players that aren't hardcore a really great place to level (i.e. Paludal Caverns) and emptied out a lot of those other zones way out in the middle of no where....especially the Kunark ones that are so much fun to hang around in.
I am levelling up a couple of new characters right now on a new server, and they are both in their 30's. I think it's absolutely terrific to group with people that are playing their first characters, but are good players learning fast, and to see that they've never even heard of zones like Firiona Vie and Ill Omen. It makes it a lot of fun to get a small group of them together and give them a tour, or just go and do low-level raids with them to give them experience on how it's done. A side and probably unplanned benefit is that it makes it much easier to recruit good players into the guild that I'm in. If I bring my bard down to Frontier Mountains to solo a bit, and find some person there who is new but has taken the time to research the zone, get maps, read up on good places to level and chosen to try it out, then taken the time to travel there, then I want them in my guild and on my friends list. More than likely they're going to be a good, solid player to have.
Ok I've rambled on a lot giving my 2 coppers, but my general point is this. Give VI a break folks! Please! I get so tired of hearing people complain, then VI gives them what they ask for, then they complain, so VI tries harder, then they complain. I mean really...come on...give them a break and quit whining like 2 year olds! Please! =)
VI has become much more pro-active, they actually respond to petitions most of the time now (although the other day I was doing crowd control with my bard in Paw and got stuck in the clipping and couldn't sing songs for crowd control (I was stuck in a wall) so the entire group got wiped except one person, and since it's a known bug I petitioned 3 times reporting it not even caring about the rez since we got one, but I never even got a response *grrrrr*). Ok so stuff like that still happens, but they ARE getting better, and they're probably a lot more likely to listen to the stuff that you say if you don't type things that show that you're obviously 12 playing on your parent's credit card =). *No offense to any of you kids out there, I grouped with a 13 year old girl last night that was a pretty freakin' awesome player...that's the same age I started playing the old text MUD's*.
Ok enough! I've rambled on! Keep up the good work VI...you're doing good but I challenge you to do better, and to all you whiners out there...GROW UP!! =)
Good luck everyone and safe journeys,
J.S.
Planes of Power - Rumors to Fact
The Planes of Power developement team has released a PoP design update to put to rest some of the many rumors surrounding the anticipated expansion. The most exciting rumor-turned-fact is that of an increase to the level cap. The cap will be raised to 65!!!
For the entire release visit the EQLive site and go to Community/Articles, or just read it here...
Planes of Power Design Update
The Planes of Power development team has been working hard to ensure development is on schedule and things are looking really fantastic. Initially, we wanted to avoid mentioning too much too soon; unfortunately the lack of details has lead, at least in part, to an increase in rumors as we get closer to the release of Planes of Power. We'd like to put some of those rumors to rest and give you a general outline of some of the things we have planned.
For Planes of Power there will be two forms of character advancement: level increase and Planar Advancement.
The level cap will increase to 65. Those levels will have inherent benefits much like previous levels. However, they will not be exactly the same. The rate of advancement in character levels is designed to feel more natural and not take the punishing time commitment required between 51 and 60. We understand the frustration that painfully long levels can cause, and hope not to repeat that experience for players. This, combined with the new bonuses for fighting higher level opponents, should make leveling seem less like something that you have to do and more like something that just happens as you play.
Level advancement is closely tied to Planar Advancement. The systems compliment each other. Planar advancement includes extensions on the Alternate Advancement system, along with new abilities for all classes. Advancing your character is a combination of traditional leveling and advancement through planar abilities. Players who enjoy pure leveling can do so, and people that prefer a combination of level advancement and investment in specific abilities can do that as well.
That's the basic plan for advancement in Planes of Power. We'll continue to refine and tune the specific details as we go through the remaining six weeks of beta testing.
Many of the game balancing and system changes you've seen in Live EverQuest over the last few months have been done with this future advancement in mind. Expect to see more balancing that allows us to once again develop high end content that does not involve marathon battles that are more about attendance and endurance than tactics and skill (e.g. The first time people rounded the corner, stared Trakanon square in the face, and knew they had mere minutes to win or lose, as opposed to the second hour of an end-game encounter.) Creating Planes of Power has been as much about reevaluating existing gameplay as it has been about creating new gameplay.
We believe that advancement should be fun and rewarding. We are very aware of the issues that players are not enjoying in current gameplay and some of the mechanics introduced with other expansions. We plan to avoid contrived "timesinks", so that you'll be playing rather than just spending time. This is not to say that success in Planes of Power doesn't require some time, we just want it to be time that you can enjoy. And even though this is a high level expansion, there will be ways for both casual and hardcore players to advance.
That is as much detail as we can give you right now. We appreciate your patience, and we hope that you'll enjoy Planes of Power.
- The Planes of Power Development Team
