EQ Never

Their goblins remind me of gremlins (the movie).

It's bizarre how these people are acting like the company didn't just fire the creative minds behind the project and a bunch of developers. No timetables, no detailed class information. They're just showing the same kind of concept art that was presented years ago.

This have had creative minds?

supertouch_sl said:

It's bizarre how these people are acting like the company didn't just fire the creative minds behind the project and a bunch of developers. No timetables, no detailed class information. They're just showing the same kind of concept art that was presented years ago.

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Dave Georgeson, Jeff Butler, 1 developer, and a bunch of CS/CR were let go.

The rest of the team has spent time reorganizing and prioritizing EQNext and Landmark's future, and the latest update seems like a pretty solid direction. They removed a ton of roadblocks for new players and a bunch of over-complicated systems that aren't appropriate for Landmark. Development is clearly focused on EQNext now, though Landmark is still getting significant updates.

Laerazi_sl said:

Dave Georgeson, Jeff Butler, 1 developer, and a bunch of CS/CR were let go.

The rest of the team has spent time reorganizing and prioritizing EQNext and Landmark's future, and the latest update seems like a pretty solid direction. They removed a ton of roadblocks for new players and a bunch of over-complicated systems that aren't appropriate for Landmark. Development is clearly focused on EQNext now, though Landmark is still getting significant updates.

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Laerazi_sl said:

Dave Georgeson, Jeff Butler, 1 developer, and a bunch of CS/CR were let go.

The rest of the team has spent time reorganizing and prioritizing EQNext and Landmark's future, and the latest update seems like a pretty solid direction. They removed a ton of roadblocks for new players and a bunch of over-complicated systems that aren't appropriate for Landmark. Development is clearly focused on EQNext now, though Landmark is still getting significant updates.

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Agreed. The latest update to Landmark has actually given me a lot of hope for EQN based on many of the improvements. What I can glean from it:

1. The choice to link minor character trait improvement to achievements is genius. In the EQN context, achievements are going to have a similar functionality to AA points and support their horizontal progression. The bonuses aren't powerful enough to make any single achievement mandatory, but they also incentivize playing multiple spheres of the game and give a sense that there's always something to do.

2. The itemization design is, in my opinion, the best so far in any MMO. Itemization in EQN/Landmark functions more like itemization from old table top games, rather than the WoW-style stat-sticks that we've grown accustomed to. Rather than simply enchancing power passively, itemization fundamentally changes the build and playstyle. Selecting gear combinations in EQN/LM is more similar to selecting a card for your deck in Magic/Hearthstone than it is anything else.

3. There are plenty on this forum that will decry the Landmark competitions - "Daybreak is so worthless, they're having players build their game for them." Ironically, these are the same voices who will bitch and moan about a lack of content in other games. Frankly, the choice is inspired - and has a lot in common with the old text-based MUDs where long-term players were invited to design zones, etc. And the best builders in Landmark are producing some really high quality stuff that can then be used and adjusted by developers to quickly assemble points of interest. This is going to rapidly accelerate the sheer number of points of interest that can be placed in what they're targeting to be a massive world given the Voxelfarm world generation tech.

4. Combat is starting to come together, and with adjustments to the Landmark combat progression you can start to see their vision for combat on the horizon, even if it's still in need of polish. Even though we're looking currently at a limited number of weapon abilities, it's easy to note how the designers have made the abilities influence each other, much like the class design of World of Warcraft and something that was conspicuously absent from more recent games including WildStar, ESO, and to a lesser extent GW2. Furthermore, because of the itemization discussed above, abilities can shift is usefulness and how the influence each other based on the itemization that you've chosen.

5. The art style isn't going to be for everyone but it's consistent and works well with the clay-like behavior of voxels. The animations - particularly heroic movement as well as combat animations - are excellent. Even at this early stage, I'd call the combat in EQN/Landmark to be above that of ESO and with the potential to exceed TERA.

It's clear that they're working towards something for E3. I believe we'll see a playable demo, likely set in a Qeynos comprised of both player and developer work.

This isn't to say EQN is guaranteed to be a success. The monster AI currently is very, very underdeveloped and that's only a small fraction of the larger constellation of AI work that they've committed to - and I have real questions in my mind as to whether this is going to be another false promise along the lines of GW2's dynamic events - great as a soundbyte, lousy as execution. And there's continued questions about performance - it's improved drastically since the Landmark alpha, but real questions remain as to whether they're going to be able to get the Forgelight/Voxelfarm hybrid to create the huge, seamless world without performance hiccups.

Regardless, Daybreak is trying a whole bunch of new things and that's something that should be celebrated. Given the sheer amount of shit in Landmark and EQN that hasn't been done before, and it's pretty amazing what they've been able to achieve, even if Landmark isn't a "great game" yet. (And frankly, for Landmark to be a great game, they have to solve their voxelmancy problem - something completely archaic to new users.)

Well said. Recent updates have given some hope back.

Convo_sl said:

Nobody wants this to fail.

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I do.

Casual is the only hope. Hardcore shit has a microscopic audience.

Yeah this needs to fail.

I just don't see what else there is to look forward to. I put $30 or so towards Crowfall but I've got my doubts with it, too. So it's PVP voxels, PVE voxels, a handful of Unity MMOs (Crowfall applies here), a laundry list of archaic MMOs, Black Desert (haha jk game looks garbage tier), or wish upon a star someone is secretly doing something good in the background.

My interest level has basically bottomed out but I don't want it to fail because I don't think there's anything else out there. Maybe Blizzard will descend upon Blizzcon with some game-changer but it'll take twice as long as EQN to come out, which is already on its 30th year of development.

I'm probably in a minority here but I wish Trion would take on Rift 2. I liked Rift, but it lacked a few crucial things and I didn't last long with it. I'm not really sure where Trion's head (or money) is at right now though. They're definitely a copy-cat company so they'd probably voxel the fuck out of Telara just because.

gogojira_sl said:

I'm probably in a minority here but I wish Trion would take on Rift 2. I liked Rift, but it lacked a few crucial things and I didn't last long with it. I'm not really sure where Trion's head (or money) is at right now though. They're definitely a copy-cat company so they'd probably voxel the fuck out of Telara just because.

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Just as some said they want EQN to fail, I would really like to see Trion fall right on it's ass honestly. At least DBG is trying something different and not just on a small scale. Outside of Rift they've been shit overall and that's WITH Hartsman at the helm. I can only imagine where they'd be without him. Since his return there hasn't been anything noteworthy looking from the outside and that copycatting bullshit Trove really needs to die. Low cost, no-risk uninspired nonsense like that game should not be rewarded.

Wishing for a Rift2... I just don't see it when Rift one was only just an okay game at best in the first place to most people it seems. The story was forgettable, it was built on that Gamebryo engine, the PvP was zzz and everything decent got dumbed down as they went along. Not sure why anyone would want to make the videogame equivalent ofLook Who's TalkingII.

We won't see anymore MMOs from Trion, at least ones they make since it looks like they have no brains left. For them it looks like it's all about publishing foreign and indie games that they can say"What? Problems? Well take it up with those guys, we didn't make the game. We just run the cash shops."

Jackdaddio_sl said:

Not sure why anyone would want to make the videogame equivalent ofLook Who's TalkingII.

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Lol +1

The animation stuff looks really bad in videos but I swear I don't notice that shit in game for some reason. Landmark is filled with a bunch of weird angle terrain because it's all randomly generated and it gets even worse with a weapon in hand. I feel like most MMO animations are shit though and wouldn't be able to compensate. Could be wrong, but I feel like in most scenarios, especially hand crafted shit, they'd hold out fine.

Actually had a bit of fun with it last night. It's a way better user experience than it was at alpha.

I would rather this completely flop after the takeover than have another wannabe falling short SWTOR style. Half-assing the development of these games so they limp across the minorly enjoyable/minorly profitable line is not the goal. Either do it right or GTFO.