Letter From the Producer

EverQuest Producer Holly "Windstalker" Longdale updated us this afternoon about what's happening this month and beyond for EverQuest.

  • Some improvements are being made to Epic 1.0 quests (bottlenecks are being reduced -- details can be found in the latest Test Server patch notes).
  • Legends of Norrath loot will be a little more easier to come by (for the right price)
  • The progression server is a prominent topic (one that we know all about, thanks to Aristo's intricately detailed post earlier this week).
  • We have been introduced to the idea of "campaigns" (downloadable content to be released twice a year - the first of which expected this coming Fall). These are said to feature "about the same amount of content" as what would normally be seen in an annual expansion.

Players have raised numerous questions about this, of course. As of this posting, they haven't been answered (it is a Friday afternoon, after all; happy Friday, by the way!), but you can probably expect some answers in this EQ Forum thread in the coming week.

(You can find the full letter posted below the jump.)

Hail, Norrath!

Sorry for not posting sooner! We are preparing for an awesome EQ future and I'm getting familiar with this epic game again.

To start with, we’re working on a new Progression Server based on your feedback from earlier in the year. We’re so excited about it we’re going to launch it as soon as possible and still aiming for June. We’re in the process of getting a new server up and running and planning for a Beta. There is a detailed forum post from Aristo about the Progression Server and additional detail to support a new in-game poll that launched last night so we can get more of your feedback on some key decisions.

Next week in our April 22 update, you’ll see more improvements to the Epic 1.0 quests, bug fixes, and quest and mission improvements.

We’re also adding a new item in the marketplace on April 22 called “Legend of the Oathbound” that will bring the oft-requested Legends of Norrath loot items to you in randomized bundles that you can trade or sell. Our first bundle will include EQ loot items from the first three Legends of Norrath card sets as well as tournament and promotional loot items that haven’t been available for several years. We’re going to put these items on the marketplace starting at 999SC. Each LoN loot crate guarantees you two loot rewards!

What’s coming? What are campaigns?

In the fall, EQ will release its first “campaign” content. “Campaigns” are our RPG-centric term for DLCs. We thought it was appropriate!

We expect to do two campaigns a year with our first coming this fall. Our primary goal is to keep the world vibrant with content and respond to player needs and issues. We will still provide new lands and character advancement opportunities with our campaigns.

In our two campaign releases each year, we plan to release about the same amount of content as we normally would in one annual expansion. This is important to us because it will allow us to deliver content to you more often as well as respond to an ever-changing player base. For example, the Progression Server is just one thing we are doing in response to recent community feedback. I'll also say that pricing has not been determined for the first campaign coming in fall, but we’ll share details when we get closer to our release.

Stay tuned as we bring you more details as we move ahead.

As ever, my best to you all!

Holly "Windstalker" Longdale
Executive Producer, EQ & EQ2

Comments

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Holly's Grade
# Apr 27 2015 at 6:50 AM Rating: Decent
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Poor Holly doesn't understand that, in general, most EQ1 players loathe and despise her beloved EQ2. Xpac drips instead of xpac drops were very negatively received and will continue to be negatively received no matter what they are called. Otherwise, the epic 1.0 stuff, the LoN stuff (sort of... get rid of the useless junk like consumable ornaments)... SMART changes... are pretty cool. So far I'd have to give Holly a D+. She ruined herself with the campaign crap, otherwise, a solid A- or maybe even A. Still, D+ is an improvement over what we had 6 months ago.
h
# Apr 19 2015 at 6:23 PM Rating: Good
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I don't see any new classes coming but would love to see new race and a new starting place. The tutorial is stale and could use a replacement and defaulting all players to CR is kinda meh.
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h
# Apr 19 2015 at 8:09 PM Rating: Default
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fronglo wrote:
I don't see any new classes coming but would love to see new race and a new starting place. The tutorial is stale and could use a replacement and defaulting all players to CR is kinda meh.

EQ is top heavy. People that keep asking for content that isn't current level do not live in the same reality as everyone else. You have 15 expansions worth of sub level 85 content to do things in. Stop asking for it.
epic bottle neck.
# Apr 19 2015 at 12:35 PM Rating: Good
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sure hope the monk epic gets help. been in skyfire for a long time mass killing and staring at track window looking for my epic drop
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Service and support
# Apr 19 2015 at 6:21 AM Rating: Decent
We’re also adding a new item in the marketplace on April 22 called “Legend of the Oathbound” that will bring the oft-requested Legends of Norrath loot items to you in randomized bundles that you can trade or sell. Our first bundle will include EQ loot items from the first three Legends of Norrath card sets as well as tournament and promotional loot items that haven’t been available for several years. We’re going to put these items on the marketplace starting at 999SC. Each LoN loot crate guarantees you two loot rewards! hope they lower the price !!!

What’s coming? What are campaigns?

In the fall, EQ will release its first “campaign” content. “Campaigns” are our RPG-centric term for DLCs. We thought it was appropriate!

We expect to do two campaigns a year with our first coming this fall. Our primary goal is to keep the world vibrant with content and respond to player needs and issues. We will still provide new lands and character advancement opportunities with our campaigns.

In our two campaign releases each year, we plan to release about the same amount of content as we normally would in one annual expansion. This is important to us because it will allow us to deliver content to you more often as well as respond to an ever-changing player base. For example, the Progression Server is just one thing we are doing in response to recent community feedback. I'll also say that pricing has not been determined for the first campaign coming in fall, but we’ll share details when we get closer to our release.
.......GREAT IDEA !!!

FYI: need to bring back better customer Service and support: i am tired of 3 day wait for tickets to be looked at

keep up the good work
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Something Truly New?
# Apr 18 2015 at 7:03 PM Rating: Good
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Please add a new class! It's been what, 11 years? I've been a supporter (with three accounts) since the game launched. A new race would be nice as well at some point, as I think it's been 10 years since that happened.
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Something Truly New?
# Apr 20 2015 at 12:18 AM Rating: Decent
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I've always wanted to see a rogue/wizard hybrid since all other parent classes but those 2 and maybe mage already have a hybrid. I don't really see them adding it to the game at this point. I figured EQ 1 to be dying and new focus to be put into EQ next. But with the death of SOE who knows if that will even happen.
Something Truly New?
# Apr 19 2015 at 4:50 PM Rating: Default
How about making goblins and orcs as playable races! How about adding an Assassin class, maybe as a rogue hybrid. We already have hybrids of cleric, monk, and druid classes, so why not?
Something Truly New?
# Apr 19 2015 at 4:48 AM Rating: Decent
snap ive put forward on many of times a new class/race would be great :) lets hope us 2 alone can force this to happen,BTW keep up the good work EQ team :)
Something Truly New?
# Apr 19 2015 at 1:27 PM Rating: Decent
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Yay. :D Does anyone else wanna jump on the bandwagon here?

New ownership should start with something new. Make your mark on EQ to really be remembered by. :) It would be nice to say, "I remember when Daybreak took over and they added (insert new class name) and (insert new race name). They really did something to break up the staleness in the variety area that lasted over a decade."
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Something Truly New?
# Apr 19 2015 at 8:03 PM Rating: Good
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Well, World of Warcraft took Kung Fu Panda, So EQ will grab the raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy.
You will play a Raccoon, that will be the second race able to Tinker.
New class will be called....a Psion, who uses Psionic power.
you are able to have a pet...you can call it Groot.
:-P
hmm
# Apr 18 2015 at 5:57 PM Rating: Decent
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My only problem with the adventure packs in eq2 was they kept reusing the same zone over and over but with different spawns. I never could be bothered to go through any of them completely. Some of the splitpaw saga was kinda neat for the time (the arena event offered some interesting rewards I think) but all in all I didn't really care for them.

Honestly though this is the only change I have seen Daybreak talk about that I don't care much for. I guess I shouldn't really worry about it though since I never get to experience new expansion content until its been out at least a couple of years anyways due to my casual play style. Until we get another expansion that offers content for more than the top 5 or 10 levels I don't have much use for them ATM.
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Removal of some epic 1.0 bottlenecks
# Apr 18 2015 at 9:19 AM Rating: Excellent
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Thank You, Daybreak Games !

Good changes and improvements all around.

campaigns
# Apr 18 2015 at 6:25 AM Rating: Excellent
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I'm optimistic all these changes will be good.

The movement of the game EQ2 under Holly's watch has been profound, and I would say positive from my limited sampling of it.
Loot Cards
# Apr 18 2015 at 5:02 AM Rating: Decent
15 posts
Well, they've done away with a lot of the power leveling for money with Heroic chars.
And they've curbed the plat sellers. I think this is just to do away with folks selling
loot cards for money.Can't have anyone profiting off the game! ;)
Adventure packs coming to EQ1?
# Apr 17 2015 at 9:22 PM Rating: Decent
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EQ2 tried this with Adventure packs, back in it's early days. My friends and I all thought it was a good idea, but the price of the content really didn't justify what you were getting for it (when it was new). How will this be different?
Adventure packs coming to EQ1?
# Apr 20 2015 at 1:16 PM Rating: Excellent
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Campaigns are being added to EQ2, too.. first one coming next week. Hard to say how it will be received over there; the EQ2 Rum Cellar thread is pretty mixed reaction. I think it will depend on how much content vs value these are.

This might help explain it better, but basically it's smaller DLC to replace xpacks: http://eq2.zam.com/story.html?story=35925
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Adventure packs coming to EQ1?
# Apr 18 2015 at 5:56 AM Rating: Good
36 posts
It isn't going to be much different. People are going to hate it. It's a flowery way of saying "we're giving you less content overall per year, but we're giving it to you in halves."

EQ2 hated it. We hated it in CotF with its staggered releases. But they're going to give it to us anyway.
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