As I mentioned before, Landuran and I returned to Everquest Two over the summer. In theory, so did Myclawz and Greldor, but we haven’t seen them online…at all. Anyways, over the past few months I have found myself wishing that Everquest Two was more popular than it is. The reality is that a success of an MMO is determined by its launch (and maybe the following month).
Everquest Two had a horrible launch. On top of that – the game was horrible. Sony spent so much time making sure that the trade skill system wasn’t trivial that they made it so complex it wasn’t even fun. The graphics were out of this world. The combat was ok, but it was lacking that EQ1 feeling we were all looking for.
Everquest Two, as it exists today is a completely different game than it was at launch. They completely redid the trade skill system to make it a little less painful, added guild housing, improved the solo and small group quests. Also, they actually go out of their way to have events and seasonal things in the game, which makes it fun. The graphics continue to improve as systems become more and more powerful. They even have in game voice chat that works (unlike WoW – which is horrible) …I haven’t seen any of the raid content yet, so I can’t comment on that.
The problem is no one wants to buy a game that is 5 years old and start playing it (unless you are an EQjunkie, of course). I understand that – I don’t blame you. This brings me to the point of this entire post – what about Everquest Three?
With all of the lessons learned from making Everquest One and EQ2 image what they could do with Everquest Three. I realize Verant actually made Everquest One, but Sony supported it long enough that they know the ropes.
Here is what I propose for EQ3:
OS independence:
With consoles basically acting as computers today I don’t think it is unreasonable to support EQ3 on the Playstation 3, OSX, Windows, and Linux. In reality, the first three I think could happen, but for whatever reason no one likes to develop games for Linux (Thankfully, there is Wine). With OS independence Sony would have a larger pool of people to buy their game – that is never a bad thing.
Graphics:
Keep the Everquest Two style. I really like the realism that comes with the graphics. I also like how the graphics evolve as hardware becomes better and better. I hate how cartoon like WoW is.
Basic Classes:
Steal this from Everquest One and WoW. The more classes and specialization you add into the game the more complex balancing, gearing, raiding…everything becomes. Go back to the original classes in Everquest One and try to revamp them. Make things more simple and straightforward.
Solo and Group Content:
Continue upon what Everquest Two is doing. Create solo and duo versions of the group dungeons so casual players will have a chance to experience most of the world.
Scale the loot and difficulty of dungeons dynamically based on how many people are in a group. This will make things reasonable no matter how many people are in their party, while encouraging people to group together to get better loot…this is an MMO after all.
Keep currency the same. Everquest one had LDONs and other dungeons that used special crystals to buy things. It was annoying that each time a new expansion came out your old currency was worth nothing. At the very least have an exchange NPC that will let you convert one currency to another.
Raid Content:
Make things difficult. Raiding is not for the casual player and never will be. Raiding is about putting in lots of time to develop a strategy and coordinate with many other people to defeat an epic monster. If the fight isn’t epic, it wouldn’t be believable.
Bring back open air raid content. Everquest One was well known for having dragons in the middle of a low level zone. This was really cool for a couple of reasons:
1. It brought us back to low level zones we haven’t seen in awhile.
2. It gave everyone a sense of community – the low level players needed us to kill the dragon to make the zone playable.
Quests:
Make quests change. Nothing makes an MMO more boring than following a guide from Alla or EQ2i. Imagine if quests were dynamically created and there was no guide. This is the most complex of all of the proposals, but it is still manageable. At the very least have a few thousand versions of a quest that are randomly assigned.
Zones:
Create a set of zones for each tier of players 1-10,10-20, etc. Once you have a set of zones stop. When you release expansions only release content for higher level players. Everyone will get a chance to work through the low level stuff if they keep plugging. By limiting what they can do you push more people towards the level cap which will make finding a group easier on everyone.
Trade skills:
I like the harvesting on Everquest Two. I would definitely keep that. I would add a request system into the game so players could create their own writ and place it on the auction house. Anyone with the right trade skill could fill the writ to earn coin and experience. I think this would relieve some of the repetitiveness of trades skilling as it exists today.
Events:
Have events going on in game as much as possible. Best of the Best tournaments, Seasonal quests, anything. Events are the polish that makes a good MMO great.
Difficulty:
Raids should be hard. They should make you want to pull your hair out. They should require lots of communication and dedication.
The solo and group content should be manageable. Things should be challenging (so it doesn’t get to boring), but not insanely hard.
What suggestions do you have for Everquest Three?
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I heard they aren’t making eq3, but i’m about done with eq2 and eq after playing since launch off and on, so i’de be jumping for joy if eq3 came out. I do miss the hard mode of eq1 style zone training, corpse runs ect ect. I think that is what made the game what it was. I used to be scared of nek forest in eq1, eq2 is just too easy. So to sum it up, make eq3 with early eq1 playstyle with eq2 graphics, ui, and simple crafting without mc items.
Take eq2 graphics (add new engine that supports new hardware. gpu’s, cpu’s etc), eq1 mechanics and content mix it together = great game that will draw lots (if not all) hardcore PvE players.
Any future EQ iteration has got to abolish zones in the overland areas. I’m sick to death of playing in a world that feels like a dozen shoe boxes all connected by bits of invisible string. I love the feeling of imersion when running about in WoW’s world, the rest of the game is a bit on the nose though.
- Roldy
Well i’d not like to see eq2 go, nor have another game w/ eq1 physical mechanics… but if i were to take a wish list for a new spin on eq…
Eliminate zones similar to VG -amazing epic horizons… AWESOME!
Go the way of FreeRealms and allow server independance where you can log in to any server w/ your main toon… man that is brilliant!
Eliminate the level grind, i mean really! Nothing is a bigger game killer than new players getting frustrated w/ trying so hard to catch up to their “expert” friends to play w/ them when their friends already used up the relevance of the zones. WoW has grown thru word of mouth… 11 million – yeah; didnt start that way. It still had levels but much quicker pace allowing them to play with their friends before that burnout occurs. Focus levels on Story arcs, quests, Stature and Ranking and gear, etc. Imagine in StarsWars ep4; you have a goofy, whiney Luke Skywalker straight off the ranch becoming the biggest hero ever… it was his actions, not his grindage of jawas that got him to the top of the heap, how different is that from real life? Instant action, instant herioc feel for new players and old players alike. Sure some places will be tougher to fight through, but thats the way it is. Everyone will feel heroic and have fun, and at any time you can have your buddies hook up w/ you (new or old) and actually matter in the group. Not only that, but as a dev you never truely have to worry about zones becoming totally irrelevant this way either, allowing more content continuously. “OH…! I’m level 80 and just ran by a lvl 20 dragon and he coward away from me!” I mean come on, just silly and actually wasteful. Create a massive world, then focus on more story content, and alternate worlds like the wasted chunks of Luclin or the PoP.
Make faction matter, this may seem silly but RoK, for as absoluty kick as it was, the factioning was almost laughable. Alliances should be taken serious. If you ally yourself w/ one team, you should be KoS to their enemies. No playin both sides of the fence etc. Or kill someones General, then kill some mobs and your friends again… just blows any immersion and sense of consequence.
PVP, come on.
This is a world of good and evil… and make neutral their own meaningful factions.
Even if its in an instanced way or something… PvP is fast and fun action. This is to me the strongest point of WoW and the only reason i really get into it, a 15 minute fast-paced battle ground at any moment of the day, instantly, talk about convenient – enough to make me keep a subscription, and blow off a bad days vibe.
Eliminating levels also eliminates griefing. Someone may have better gear, but the real impact of that will still be limited by the players own skills. The more quick and instant action into the game the better, we’re all havin kids and distractions and all kinds of maddening things going on! We really want to raid but simply don’t have the time! (p.s. Don’t eliminate raids) But OMG, Sieging Freeport!!! holy moly. And of course you would need to create faction based “stations” or “camps” so everyone isnt jumping the same griffen, flying to the same base and getting the same quests… ?!
I would love to see the entertainment system from SWG be incorporated as an almost tradeskill aspect but add more of a questing style of game play into it as well. I love many bardish fantasy novels that talk about explore mystery, romance and intrigue, etc. Allow the players to use this as a way to create quests themselves as well.
Somehow eliminate class dependance.. the hardest part about finding a group is finding a Tank, or finding a second healer, or crowd control, and mana buffs etc… Given the structure of eq2 you have the last 2 spots being filled by any of the much more fun to play dps classes (IMO) making it much harder for them to find groups, and actually making it harder for groups to form in the first place. People don’t always play MMO’s because they have friends that play.. they play because they want to retain some sort of human interaction… allow that more, excite people in that way and it will be so fun. I hate to say it but eliminating classes all together in a skill based fashion similar to what UO had might help this and allow for more immersion, i may suck at sword fighting at first but even Gandalf had a sword…
eq2 graphics are technically good, but in 5 years could probably use some polish.
The biggest thing to add would be a little stronger art direction, the small things, the nuances, mostly in color… can you see how your in a tunnel or something and sometimes cant find a crevice or passage because everything is so much the same texture and the depth perception isnt always relevant? WoW looks a little goofy cartoony for my taste but they are absolute masters of color and environment given their style, please don’t immitate that style (thats what freerealms is for) but its cool to be inspired by talent (also marketing and branding **cough**). Real world realism.. you have a hundred Iksar in KJ and where do they get their food… farms?… from those two guys fishing in the swamp?
What to keep… The best part about Eq2 is simply individualism, in eq2 my toon is a hero, he’s special and unique. I know how many gnolls i’ve killed, i have trophies in my abode that recount my individual heroics and bring me back to those days, and also allows me to collect lore of the world. Most of what eq2 has is simply the best there is, with the suggestions i’ve added above
I may sound like WoW lover, but honestly outta the probably 25 hrs of game play per week i can grab, about 5 of that is NOT spent in EQ2. But there’s no harm in simply respecting the talent of others and open your mind to what is obviously working in many different respects. EQ has become an entirely awesome IP of its own that is fascinating and fun to be apart of, and still has so much more potential to discover.
Oh and by the way don’t name it “EQ3″! Nothing belittles a game, or 2, more than pronouncing the successor.
Classes shouldn’t be as few as in WoW, that just gets boring, diversity wins. I just can’t get myself to lvl a new toon in WoW just because theres so few classes to choose from, too alike. And basically one way to max lvl, very linear gameplay. Not much replayability.
EQ2 has mentoring so you can play with your friends from the get-go…
WoW doesnt have this feature. EQ3 would obviosly HAVE to have it.
EQ3:
Same-style graphics as EQ2
EQ2 is the most fun game to group in imo (out of Vanguard, WoW, Lineage etc), theres a taunt-system in place … unlike WoW. 6 players in group leaves usually that 1 last spot to a random class…group doesnt have to be “perfect”, leaves place for players who don’t want to play the standard most-wanted classes.
At the moment I’ still enjoying EQ2, started playing in 2005, had a few breaks from the game but it is just the most fun game, everything is well thought-out from the ground up.
Theres shinies and other clickables in the world, this adds to the fun…instead of a boring non-interractable world like most if not all other MMOs.
Harvesting…everyone can do it, everyone can get a rare, don’t need a RAID to harvest the more valuable materials.
Only way to improve EQ2 in my mind is to get more people to play it…