EQ Never

Byr_sl said:

so i havnt really been following eqnext very much. have they dropped any hints on pvp ruleset servers?

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It's a year out of alpha... So no they haven't.

a_skeleton_02_sl said:

I feel like it's a pretty solid number compared to pages and pages of at your fingertip ability bloat we have in MMOs now. 8 abilties with the ability to change them when not in combat seems fine with me.

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Ability bloat has been going down hill for a while now.

Quaid_sl said:

It's a year out of alpha... So no they haven't.

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Is this your guess or is there a roadmap I missed?

Felmega_sl said:

8 Skills is too few, imo. I could be wrong, but such a limited amount of skills does not sound promising.

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The way a_skeleton_02 and them are describing it, is that you have 4 abilities per weapon and 4 abilities per class. Lets generalize weapons so they fit in nice neat groups, so the average is somewhere 15 different types per game. Thats 60 abilities to choose from using those numbers. If Im not mistaken, we'll have 40 classes that each have 4 abilities of their own so thats, what, 160 more abilities to choose from. The combinations from that alone for a single character, is a huge amount! Much less the fact that you can change them at a moments notice. I dont think it sounds limited at all...

Im a fan of situational abilities as well. However, I dont think that they should be an integral part of your class, nor do I want to allocate space on my HUD for an ability that I would use .01% of my entire playtime. If anything, add in these special abilities as clickies on a "Rental" item. So as soon as the player logs out for a while, the item is gone. Just to keep people from actively hoarding 50 clickies, and still be able to design encounters/dungeons/raids with unique gimmicks.

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Balance is always going to be a headache for EQ:Next, though. They are basically doubling, maybe even tripling, the amount of work and time that the League of Legends team has to put in by having an extra four abilities to contend with on just class balance ALONE!~ Not even taking into consideration all the other content and framework that is involved in the design of an MMO.

Best guess based on the landmark workshop schedule.

Dandai_sl said:

I don't know how realistic this is, but Georgeson (or Michaels, I don't remember exactly) mentioned once that since there is going to be an emphasis on PVE in EQN, they're not worried about strict balancing in a way that you might recognize from WoW or LoL. They admitted there will be cookie cutter builds, but they hope that people will find a niche that they love to play and play that way. Balance be damned.

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Honestly, if thats the case - it might be pretty awesome. Though Im sure some people will hate it when they just want to play one class and only one class. Id love to just be able to play the best tank role regardless of where I am. Oh? We're going to unrest? Let me switch over to Paladin real quick. The person that only wants to play one class forever and ever though is where there is going to be concern about balance and we cant forget that MMO Dev's try to please everyone.

I think someone that wants to play one class only has to adapt to not getting hung up on the class name. Instead of playing only Warrior (which only offers a handful of skills and 2 weapons) that person would probably have to also pursue the Vanguard, Stalwart Defender and Weaponmaster classes, even if they decide not to dabble in the paladin-themed tanky classes.

Basically determine for yourself which classes suit the character you want to play and learn only those, but it might leave you with gaps in your skill set just like it does in any other game (those situations where hardcore players switch to the alt most useful for the task at hand, except in EQN you dont need alts to have those skill sets). I do hope that they eventually allow for alot of playtime to be poured into just one archetype so people arent forced to hybridize if they dont want to, but that's to be seen.

Mr Creed_sl said:

I think someone that wants to play one class only has to adapt to not getting hung up on the class name. Instead of playing only Warrior (which only offers a handful of skills and 2 weapons) that person would probably have to also pursue the Vanguard, Stalwart Defender and Weaponmaster classes, even if they decide not to dabble in the paladin-themed tanky classes.

Basically determine for yourself which classes suit the character you want to play and learn only those, but it might leave you with gaps in your skill set just like it does in any other game (those situations where hardcore players switch to the alt most useful for the task at hand, except in EQN you dont need alts to have those skill sets). I do hope that they eventually allow for alot of playtime to be poured into just one archetype so people arent forced to hybridize if they dont want to, but that's to be seen.

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Oh god they better have a Paladin class/archetype I can focus into. I didn't put up with all that bullshit in EQ1, red99, etc just to have that class concept scrapped in Ponytail's chucky cheese voxel pit. Blademaster Swole-adin ftw.

Dandai_sl said:

I don't know how realistic this is, but Georgeson (or Michaels, I don't remember exactly) mentioned once that since there is going to be an emphasis on PVE in EQN, they're not worried about strict balancing in a way that you might recognize from WoW or LoL. They admitted there will be cookie cutter builds, but they hope that people will find a niche that they love to play and play that way. Balance be damned.

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That is one design philosophy EQ1 got right and good news if EQNext follows suit. Balance all abilities around PVE and not PVP. Give the PVPers the Zek servers and leave it at that. That way you avoid nerfs that affect PVE because something is OP in PVP.

For what it's worth..a tweet by Dave.

David Georgeson ?@DaveGeorgeson 9h
Seen lots of speculation about SOE Live. We will *not* be announcing dates for either game. All other guesses might be legit.

Yeah, the AI will keep track of all the shit you do. Not just scripted quests. All npcs will recognize "honor" or whatever, and some will have triggers when a PC interacts with them at certain levels.

When every single action or quest or npc can have a simple brick attached to it, giving or taking honor, you can see how a paladin in this game will go beyond milling faction and will take actual choices and everyday action for upkeep and advancement.

And then they'll put your god in the game as the only boss mob, and you're like "da fuq?"

I never felt like having 3 abilities + ultimate + 2 long CD abilities + clickies was limiting when playing LOL. I like the idea of classes having limited abilities but making them iconic. It appears that in EQN you'll have different weps/classes to keep it fresh.

I'm sure I read a while back they're releasing this on the PS4 only slightly different to the PC version. Is this still the case or was I having a cheese-fueled dream?