By all accounts Free to Play (F2P) Dungeons and Dragons Online has been a roaring success. In my own investigations I have found multiple packed low level instances filled to the brim with folks asking foolish newbie questions. Counter-intuitively, DDO subscriptions are up 40%, presumably because the F2P model allowed players enough time and content to get a bit hooked, and be sure they liked what they’d be getting. Myself, I am sticking with an F2P account, though I confess I spent some money to buy enough Turbine Points to unlock the Warforged and Monk, and grab a couple of adventure packs. I shall be endeavouring not to spend any further cash, and perhaps the free points you get during gameplay and the free content will be enough to keep me in adventures for now.
To my mind DDO has been brought back from the dead, with a second chance at glory. It had a lacklustre launch with insufficient promotion, never really making the splash it deserved. An awful lot like Everquest 2, in fact. Both games have been hiding in WoW’s shadow for far too long. I can only hope that the influx of money to Turbine will be put to good use feeding an ever-expanding DDO live-team. I’ll give Turbine one hint: If you’ll finally sort out Gnomes, and their Dragonmark, I’d be willing to spend a few points on unlocking that.
There was a time when EQ2 also sold adventure packs. Sundered Splitpaw, Bloodlines, and the Fallen Dynasty (the Isle of Mara) were all sold as online-only mini expansions for the price of $7.99 (if memory serves me right) These days they come as part of your core install, and they were sizable chunks of content worth their asking price. At some point, SOE realised that they could get that much money for a single appearance-only hat, which took a lot less effort. There have been no adventure packs since Legends of Norrath and the Station Cash shop opened.
Recently there has been a great deal of unhappiness with a new development in EQ2’s love affair with RMT (Real Money Transactions). In the next set of Legends of Norrath cards, there will be a loot card which grants one-time access to a special dungeon. Given how difficult it will be for anyone to get that card, it must be pretty awesome in that dungeon.
In DDO when you buy an adventure pack, which grants you access to a set of dungeons forever, you know exactly how much it will cost you. Everquest 2 expects you to gamble, buying packs of cards until you are lucky enough to get the one you want. I do not know the exact odds, but my experiences with getting loot cards from my free packs suggests you would need to buy a great number to stand a good chance of getting the specific loot card which opens the dungeon. This will restrict the number of people who get to experience this dungeon to the extremely lucky, and the obsessively addicted.
It is about time that Everquest 2 ended the charade that most people buy Legends of Norrath to play the card game. They do it for the loot cards, and it is a cynical exploitive way for SOE to make money. They should just remove loot cards from LoN, add them to the shop, and sell them honestly with upfront pricing, rather than forcing its customers to buy lottery tickets in the hopes of getting to experience new content. It should be noted that EQ2 also has a subscription fee. I do not think that having both extreme RMT AND a mandatory subscription charge is sustainable. I’d be happy for the RMT to go away, but I think that is not the way the MMO winds are blowing these days
Given the success of Free Realms, I have a feeling that EQ2 may be making the leap to being Free to Play, supported by RMT, with an optional subscription like Free Realms and DDO have. The streaming technology used by Free Realms has been adapted for use in EQ2 (and was responsible for the dreadful memory issues many people experienced after Live Update 53), and will be enabled at the time of the next expansion to make for a smoother new player experience. We have been promised that there will, at that time, be a great influx of new players, and I doubt that’s going to happen just because they get to start in Halas. My prediction is that Everquest 2 is going F2P. Feel free to poke fun at me if I turn out to be wrong.
Update 29th July, 2010: In the end, EQ2 did go F2P, though not in the way I hoped for. You can read about that here.
My extreme quester, Maltheas, is a ways off being able to tackle the 80 new Kunark Overland quests that arrive today, but I’m happy to know they’re there waiting for him. That is the (considerable!) extent of the content additions for my own playstyle, but raiders will be happy to see a couple of new instances to delve into. The return of Kurn’s Tower, a popular dungeon from Everquest, is quite exciting for an old lore junkie like myself, though it is unlikely I shall ever see the inside of it myself.
When last we checked in with Maltheas, Ratonga Templar of the Celestial Watch, about four months ago, the leaderboard looked like this:
Now, in all honesty, he’s not been out and about much since then, except for during the various spring events. He’d never done any of the Brell’s Day and Bristlebane’s day events before, so that scored him a fair few. In addition, the only Erollisi day event he had taken part in was the very first. For whatever reason, my EQ2 account has always been a bit on the dormant side in the Spring. Burnout after Frostfell is probably part of that. I should have posted about this years new Erollisi event at the time, as I thought it was fairly superb, at least on the Team Good version of the events. Any day you get to have a pleasant conversation with one of your patron gods (In this case Mithaniel Marr, the Truthbringer), is a good day for a Templar. True, Maltheas did meet Brell and Bristlebane on their festival days, but neither of them exactly behaved in a particularly admirable way.
So, lets see the current leaderboard. Once again, I’m using the original level cap of 50. Maltheas turns up at 10th place if I nudge the level limit up to 53, but seeing as the poor chap is still only level 35, I’ll stick with 50 for now as what I’m comparing him with.
Maltheas’ work for the gods has paid off, as he has crept up to 4th place. I did decide to let him gain a level during that period, as he has been venturing into rather more dangerous areas than he has previously needed to. Nanthera too, has been busy, and climbed to the top spot. The annoyingly named Everxxxxxxxyxxx has made a little progress too, though is clearly not terribly active. Eligh has stayed put on questcount, so is probably out of the competition in the long term. Everyone else from the old table has levelled out of the 1-50 range, which is unsurprising considering how many 50s there were in the previous leaderboard, and we have a bunch of new competition. They, of course, mostly have no idea that anyone is the slightest bit interested in how many quests they have done for their level. The average level for the table is actually a little lower than last time, so it would appear Mal may be at a bit more risk than previously!
I’m still not very active in EQ2 at the moment. Free Realms, and a run through Kingdom Hearts 2 are mostly devouring my playtime, which is a bit limited at the moment anyway due to my having something that slightly resembles employment. So for now, Maltheas mostly stands around on the docks of Mara, dithering about what evil to vanquish next.
Ahh yes. you’re probably here for the patch notes, rather than the adventures of a small brown ratonga. GU52 update notes continue below the fold.
Continue reading Everquest 2 Game Update 52 Patch Notes, and a Maltheas Extreeeeme Quester Update
For the last few days my internet connection has gone rather badly wrong. I am getting speeds reminiscent of when we were all on 14.4 dial up modems, which is pretty unhelpful for either EQ2 or Warhammer Online. Virgin Media are saying the local fault may take up to a week more to fix. As Maltheas would say, “Boos!!!!!”. It’s just as well though, as my Dad is visiting in a couple of days and the house needs some heavy cleaning to get up to his standards. So for now Maltheas abides a time in the Village of Shin, pondering the fate of Luclin.
Everquest 2 has launched a recruitment scheme with goodies for both the recruiter, and recruited. If any readers of this blog are interested in the 14 day trial, drop me a note in the comments, and I’ll shoot an invite off to you.
I’ve not popped into Warhammer for a while now. I notice that of the European servers, Burlok is the only one to be offering an xp bonus to both sides, so I’m guessing population is still an issue. In truth, I had started finding the RvR mechanisms increasingly irritating, lacking anything like the strategic depth of PotBS. The simple-minded nature of the war looks set to continue, though the bloodthirsty side of me is somewhat heartened by this upcoming change in patch 1.2 :
To help place more emphasis on Keep claiming and defence, as well as to combat the “defence by not defending” strategy, we are introducing the Zone Control Domination mechanic. With this system, players who take and hold all Battlefield Objectives and claim Keeps in a contested zone (in Tier 4) or a shared RvR lake (in Tiers 2 and 3) have the opportunity to capture that zone, forgoing the standard mechanics of Zone Control.
Each Battlefield Objective and Keep will be worth 1 Domination Point. To capture a zone via the Domination rules, your Realm must have all 6 Domination Points. In Tiers 2 and 3, capturing all six points in a shared RvR lake will give the capturing Realm control of the entire Tier. These are represented as small pip marks on the Zone Control Bar.
Battlefield Objectives and Keeps have different requirements for earning their Domination Point, as follows:
To earn a Domination Point from a Battlefield Objective, it must be owned by your Realm for 30 minutes.
To earn a Domination Point from a Keep, it must be claimed by a Guild and then held for 2 hours. If you lose control of a Battlefield Objective or Keep at any time, you lose the Domination Point.
Multiple Domination Points cannot be gained from a single source (for example, it isn’t possible to get 6 Domination Points by capturing Martyr’s Square 6 times).
If a zone that was taken over by Zone Domination is put into a contested state, all timers and Domination Points are reset.
That should, I hope, help to spread out the zergs a little, by forcing us to defend multiple locations.This new method of capturing zones is as it should have been from the very beginning, though I am somewhat irritated that keeps have to be claimed by a guild, rather than simply taken by the faction.
The change will improve the RvR on the level of base carnage, but it will also greatly shorten the length of the campaigns. A war campaign in Pirates of the Burning Sea takes a minimum of a few weeks, most likely longer with some back and forth, and involves a large amount of strategic planning. I wonder how quickly in WAR, from a starting map, could a campaign be successfully concluded (by the taking of the enemy capital)? With these changes I suspect it could all be done in a single weekend, given ideal conditions.
Now, I know that WAR never claimed to be a game of high strategy, but it is strategic depth that makes each campaign different from those that have come before it. I fear that by having so few real choices in how to go about the WAR campaign, with things changing so quickly that there is no time to think about anything more than the most basic of responses, it severely reduces replayability and long-term interest. I may just be speaking for my fellow strategy geeks though.
Right, I’d better get back to scrubbing the kitchen floor!
Reading an EQ2 forum a couple of weeks ago, I saw someone mention that on the PvP servers, folks like to lock their characters at 10th level. in order to try to accumulate a few achievement points, to give them an edge against enemy players.
That got me wondering. How many achievement points is it possible to have at 10th level? The posts thought perhaps 5 or 6, but I suspect that is an extreme underestimate of the amount of achievement xp that is out there. The answer is extremely important to anyone trying to survive in the hellish lands that are the Everquest2 PvP servers.
Maltheas, Ratonga Templar of Rodcet Nife, is my questing character, doing his level best to do every single quest in the game. He is permanently combat-xp disabled, and only enables quest xp when I have decided he absolutely needs to in order to proceed. Currently at level 34, he has over 400 more quests done than anyone else in the 30-39 level range (though given that most keen questers will have levelled out of tier 4, that’s not a terribly accurate guide.). More germane to my new project is that he has 81 Achievement points . He would have many more achievement points if he had not been born long before achievement points existed, so did not get AA xp for many of his early adventures. Yup, he’s a four year old character who is still level 34. Extreme questing takes time!
There are, of course, a lot of characters who have done more quests than Maltheas, but they are all significantly higher level. Here is the current leaderboard for characters up to level 50, the original level cap.
Needless to say, I’m extremely confident that our adventurous rat can smash the current top total on that chart. A mighty feat that absolutely no-one apart from me will care about in the slightest! I probably ought to post a little more often about what he gets up to, and the extreme-questing playstyle, but we’ll leave that for another time.
Alfrik, my new side project will be level-locked to 10th, and try to acquire as many Achievement points as possible. He’ll do this purely through soloing. I’ve picked a good soloing class for the job, the paladin. While I play on a PvE server, the results will still be applicable to the PvP servers, though it would be more time-consuming to achieve there, on account of being regularly murdered. This is where he currently stands, having just poked around a bit in the Peat Bog and Forest Ruins thus far.
Not sure whether to include exploration events yet. Technically he could run around the world getting every possible exploration event, but . For now, at least, I’ll stick to doing it the old-fashioned way with just quests and named monsters. Of course, he’ll snag a few explorations while he’s travelling around anyway. Decked out in a full suit of crafted iron platemail that he knocked up, let’s see how far he can progress. I’ll try to remember to post an occasional update!
A tense moment at the Sony World Chess Championships
Thankyou SOE for giving me an excuse to recycle old pictures! It turns out all the slippery slope arguments I made (Dig back a few posts in my EQ2 category for a whole host of yelling on the subject) back when the Exchange servers were being launched were right. Want some xp? You can now buy xp potions straight from SOE for a few dollars using Station Cash.
“Station Cash is your virtual currency to buy in-game items!”. Hmm, is it really a virtual currency when it is gained in exchange for dollars at a cost of $1 per 100 Station Cash. If the conversion rate is set in stone, then it isn’t another currency at all. It’s just dollars using a funny name. Calling it virtual just tries to make it feel less like spending real money.
At any rate, I hate this whole business passionately. When xp bonus potions are available at an extra cost, it is in the interest of the company to design the game so that xp is in short supply, to encourage people to buy them.
A level playing field for both friendly and unfriendly competition with other players has always been at the core of the attraction of MMO. That is why so many people object to gold selling at a visceral level. It feels like cheating. Well, it was cheating, right up until SOE came out and said it’s alright to buy in-game advantages with real world cash.
We’ve been sliding down this slippery slope since the Exchange Servers, via the collectable card game, Legends of Norrath loot cards, and it will eventually end up with anything in the game being available direct from the developers for a price. PvP will be decided not by skill, but by who has the deepest wallet, and that makes me very sad indeed.
A comment I made in the post before this one deserves some explanation. This is what I was referring to, from an interview with Paul Barnett.
“I was in charge of hiding all the crazy things around the world for people to find,” Paul confirmed. “I can safely say that no one has come anywhere near finding even two percent of them. There are years and years of finding all the nonsensical gags that are hidden within the game!”
There are two possibilities.
A. Large amounts of content was created that is so impossibly hard to find, that 98% of it has been completely invisible to even the most hardcore player, 2 months after release. This is apparently a good thing, as it allows the developers to think how jolly clever they are in hiding it. I disagree. Content that is that hard to find may as well not exist, and was a complete waste of development time that could have been used to flesh out the parts of the game that normal people do in fact experience. It was especially useless in persuading people to stay on after their first month.
In fact, how does Paul even know that “no one has come anywhere near finding even two percent of them”. Did they not only waste dev time creating this stuff, but then also spend time creating some method to track how many of them we’d found?
B. That the claims are untrue, or at best, wildly exaggerated. This may seem an unkind suggestion, but I have been here before. When EQ2 was released, one of the races that was supposed to be in the game was the Froglok, but upon trying to choose that race you would be confronted by this sight:
The depths of the deceit can be seen in a post I did back at that time. Suffice it to say, the race did not in fact exist in a playable form, and the suggestion we could find and unlock them was not true. A great many people wasted a whole lot of time trying to find something that did not exist. I did, uncharacteristically for me, eventually forgive them and go back, mostly because deep down I do love Everquest 2.
My point is, when an MMO developer says that something is in the game, but we, the players, just haven’t been smart enough to find it yet, I am filled with suspicion. It is true that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but it’s a whole lot easier to say something exists than to make it so. It is a great delaying tactic.
So we have a choice between A) An awful display of time-management, wasting precious developer resources that could have been used to improve the game in tangible ways, or B) A claim designed to make us think that something exists, when it does not.
I do not know whether A or B is correct, but I find neither possibility particularly admirable. I am genuinely perplexed that anyone would be boasting about it. Or perhaps I’m just a cynical old bastard who doesn’t understand.
Hellos!
I’s not posteds here before, but something happened todays which made me very sads. Very sads indeeds!
The Prophet of my healingy godses Rodcet Nife, Seeress Ealaynya Ithis, is dead! Murdereds! And someone’s responsibles!
This is us in the goods times, sharing the funny jokeses about silly Bloodsabers and their dumb god. I bets it was thems…
She was all sparklies and everythings!!! When mes came to Qeynos all those years agos, she was only ones who wanted to let me joins the Celestial Watchs. Me’d had vision of heally Rodcet saying to go theres, and she’d had visions of Him saying me was comings and to be nices to mes!!!! Boo hoos!!! I’s missing hers sos! I’s going to find whoever did this horrible horrible things, and teach thems lessons in the personal hygienes that theys won’t be liking very muches. Oh noes, not one bits.
If yous know who dids this, yous be letting me knows, and yous get big thanks from mes, Maltheas, poor little sad heally Ratonga.
Boo hoos!!!!
Oh’s, Arkenor asked mes to post this things too:
Game Update 48 Notes
Special Events
The Guild Hall building projects for Qeynos and Freeport have begun to run dangerously low on resources! Director Jasmine at the Antonica docks and Director Hezreal at the Commonlands docks are eagerly seeking workers willing to help alleviate the situation.
During “Breaking Ground†(GU48): The Prophet of Healing, Seeress Ealaynya Ithis, has been murdered and Antonica appears to have been affected! Theories abound as to who performed the deed and towards what end. You may start your own investigation at the Temple of Life in North Qeynos. Meanwhile Evdokia, one of the Plaguebringer’s fervent followers in Gorowyn, has tasks for those willing to help the Disciples of Disease. Won’t she be delighted by the news of the Seeress’ demise!
Veksar
Once thought lost to the waters of the Lake of Ill Omen, the ancient iksar city of Veksar has once again been discovered by the adventurers of Norrath! What has happened in the ancient theater of this once thriving resort city since it disappeared after the Age of Turmoil, and what secrets and treasures does it hold now? Make your way to the outpost of Omen’s Call, and see if you can begin to unravel the mystery of this risen ancient monument to the pride and power of the Sathirian Empire.
Guild Member Points
Guilds can now assign and track points for guild members. Points can be assigned in many different ways. New guild permissions determine which members can manage points and which members can receive points. For more information, check out the Guild Member Points help topic in-game by clicking on the help button (“?â€) on top right of the the Guild Window (U).
Gameplay
Fixed the camera position on Griffins and Sokokars in 3rd person mode.
First person view as a winter wolf is no longer disrupted by winter steam effect.
The barrier holding the doors of the Godking’s temple have weakened with the onset of the void storms, allowing entry even without the sacred eyes!
Zones
Everfrost
* Everfrost has had a facelift! Adventurers will find dozens of additional quests, four new hubs, and a population friendlier to various playstyles.
South Freeport
* The alchemy merchant in South Freeport has begun stocking kindling as a sideline.
Firemyst Gully
* Wood in Firemyst Gully is now fully harvestable.
Veeshan’s Peak
* Adventurers in Veeshan’s Peak will now find that defeating certain bosses will earn various respawn points in the zone.
* Pattern drops in Veeshan’s Peak now use the Smartloot system.
* Milyex Vioren has switched strategies against invaders in Veeshan’s Peak, and is now much more aggressive and much less defensive.
* Xygoz, Nexona, Hoshkar, and Druushk will now drop two set pieces to match Silverwing, Phara Dar & Trakanon’s drop rates.
Travel
Mariner bells have been added to the Thundering Steppes and Nektulos Forest docks to take players back to Antonica and Commonlands, respectively.
There is now a bell on the Nektulos Forest dock to take Neriak citizens to the docks in Neriak.
Mariner bell appearances have been added to the Neriak dock to help those who play on lower settings and couldn’t see the portal glows.
There is now a carpet to Sinking Sands on the Neriak dock.
Neriak citizens can now use the carpet in Sinking Sands to fly to the docks in Neriak.
There is now a carpet to Sinking Sands in Kelethin near the Greater Faydark ramp.
A bell has been added to the left hand dock of Kylong Plains to take adventurers to Gorowyn.
A bell has been added to the Gorowyn dock to take adventurers to the Kylong Plains.
The level restriction on the Gorowyn portal to Kylong Plains has been removed.
Quests
You can now speak to Ulgofar Wisme in Mara and get another Geomancy book if you no longer have your first one.
Special Agent Froak in Kunzar Jungle now gives another copy of the item “Reet Marching Orders†to those that are on the quest “Save the Reets†but have lost their original orders.
Rotten Chestwraps of the Guilty will now give credit to the priest who triggered it.
Assassins working on their epic who are not on stage 11 will no longer get quest credit for killing Rhylinil.
The “Dwarven Ringmail Plans” is now removed from inventory upon the completion of “In Honor and Service”.
Captain Vrondell in West Freeport will now update “Bandit Sash Bounty” for non-Freeport citizens.
Those who have finished ‘Deception’ will now have access to Darathar’s island.
General goods merchants Ilmira T’Oziarn and Ilztaonar V’Setiate in Neriak, and Sage Navarius Orvalis in North Freeport now sell creature cataloging quest starter tomes previously unavailable to evil aligned players.
ITEMS
The artisan’s tunic reward for the tradeskill tutorial quest no longer has the adventuring stats.
In-home crafting stations are no longer flagged as Lore.
The Diamond Rod from Shard of Hate now says “In Combat Run Speed†instead of “Speed at all Timesâ€.
The focus effect on the Robe of Nexus disruption has been changed from a 600 point hate reduction on Blip to a 20% chance to lower the caster’s hate position by 1 upon casting Blip.
The Crystal of Dark Energy should now stack to 100.
Illusionist Shimmering Hues 4 piece bonus should now function properly.
Troubador Magnetism 4 piece bonus should now function properly.
Fury Stormbringer 4 piece bonus should now function properly.
Spells
All non expiring class based spells should now gray out when cast and remain that way until cancelled.
Master Strikes should work correctly with implied targeting now.
Damage Over Time ticks, double attacks and flurry will no longer trigger damage shields and similar spells which trigger off of taking damage.
Sathirian Scroll of Benediction and Smoldering Pontiff’s Second Sight will now stack.
Certain spells like Rescue which are common to the classes will no longer be reset while betraying.
Moving players between groups in a raid should no longer cause non stacking group spells to cancel.
Assassin, Brigand, Ranger and Swashbuckler self buffs should now be toggleable.
Berserker
* Juggernaut and Adrenaline have had their descriptions updated to match how they work while berserk.
Defiler
* Yoppa’s Rodent Form should work correctly now.
Fury
* The Savage Feast proc should now apply properly when a dumbfire pet gets the kill.
Warlock
* Gas Cloud and its upgrades are now maintained.
Achievements
An issue has been fixed which allowed players to use more than one achievement mirror. If you were using more than one, the system will take the first one as your valid mirror and wipe the profiles from any extra mirrors.
Assassin
* Obfuscation should no longer appear to work with Concealment.
Ranger
* Conservation will now apply properly to power, heal and thorn potions.
* Enhance: Snare will no longer reduce the effectiveness of the Wood Elf racial Light Footed.
* Enhance: Fettering Poison will now increase the trigger chance of Fettering Poisons.
Tradeskills
Tradeskill writs now award 300 faction (for timed work orders) or 200 faction (for regular work orders) on completion.
Handcrafted and mastercrafted armor (levels 1-69) has received an upgrade. Existing pristine items will automatically receive the improvement.
Outfitters are happy to announce there are no more incomplete armor sets craftable at any level — not all sets are available at all levels, but if a set is available, every piece can now be made.
All available crafted armor sets from level 10 up can now be imbued.
The appearances of cloth and leather crafted armors are now more consistent, more varied in shape and tint, and should provide a much-awaited wider range of appearance options for the fashion conscious.
A wider variety of crafting stations are now available in Qeynos Harbor.
Station Voice
Voice Channels with over 100 players are now considered “high-user channels” and will only display active speakers.
Player vs Player
You can now betray and play the good classes in the evil cities and the evil classes in the good cities. In other words you can have a templar in Freeport or a brigand in Qeynos.
Hypnosis can no longer be canceled by the target of the spell.
It should now be possible to cure charm spells cast by hostile players.
Inquisitor
* If you cast Inquisition on a player, the spell will only heal members of the inquisitor’s group. Due to the nature of this spell, casting it on a hostile NPC will still cause it to heal nearby enemies. This is due to the fact that the NPC is casting the area of effect heal not the Inquisitor.
User Interface
World chat channels such as the Level channels can now be properly turned off on the main chat tab and moved to other tabs.
Fan Faire Feedback
Neither good nor evil players should spawn directly next to the docks in Kylong Plains anymore.
None of the PVP respawns in the Fens of Nathsar should be threatened by creatures wandering too close.
Several creatures in Veeshan’s Peak and Shard of Hate now drop fabled deity altars.
The “Clear All Hotkeys†option now displays a confirmation dialog before clearing your hotbar.
Oh’s, dont be forgettings to check Squadron Leader Jack Steel outs toos. He likes the beatings up of zombies as much as I dos.
Right, me’s off to have the small chats with Bloodsabers…
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