ZyyzYzzy
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Monsters and Memories (Project_N) - Old School Indie MMO
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Cybsled
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City of Mist lagged like a mofo back then. ..you were more likely to die to slideshow performance. It also had a confusing layout, shitty pathing and aggro mechanics, and so-so loot. I also think the xp multiplier wasn’t that hot? Pretty sure last time I ever visited that zone was when we helped Xate get world first shadowknight epic
One of the devs named a mace that dropped there after our original guild, though lol (Shadowed Souls, before the split and they made Element of Darkness)
One of the devs named a mace that dropped there after our original guild, though lol (Shadowed Souls, before the split and they made Element of Darkness)
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TJT
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Cybsled
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Chardok was very good xp from what I recall, but it was much harder than most dungeons so you needed decent gear. Our monks got their epics fairly easy because of our farming there for xp and loot and we would get the staff drops off the trash.
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So, this isn’t directly on point, but he did mention today that they are focused on “camps” similar to EQ. In fact, they’re deliberately designing their zones with camps in mind (just prototype zones at the moment that have a distinct Freeport / Desert of Ro feel to them).
My takeaway from the few streams that I’ve watched is that their plan is to leverage the much better tools available today and 20+ years of hindsight to re-create EQ using their own lore. For example, there will be camps, tab targeting, zones (as in loading times to move between zones), an emphasis on group combat over solo play, corpse runs, xp penalty on death, no instancing, etc. etc.
I’m sure there will be tweaks to the EQ playbook as they go along. Like he mentioned today they want to downplay the importance of raids in progressing through the game and focus more on group content. But at the end of the day, they want this to feel like EQ.
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Yep, he’s commented on that several times, and he was there in the early days of EQ. It also allows them to develop the game quicker and with fewer resources if they’re not trying to add “revolutionary” new features— like climbing.
The new tools also make it all look a lot better. Like I said, they only have some prototype zones put together, but they look great when he’s running through them.
Noodleface
A Mod Real Quick
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I don't give a fuck what anyone says, I'd much rather dungeon camp than run the same exact instance a thousand times in a row. WoW's formula was shit, which is why I played EQ for over 5 years, and WoW for just over 12 months. If these guys are trying to make an EQ successor, please don't take any advice from the WoW fanboys. They have their own shitty game that is still up and running. We don't need WoW clone #10, that's how the MMO industry turned into a flaming pile of shit in the first place. If loot is the issue, then just spread better loot out into more level appropriate dungeons. The reason why everyone went to Seb or KC over Chardok or Howling Stones was because the loot in the other dungeons sucked. It's all about incentive. Incentivize your player base to go to those harder, out of the way dungeons by rewarding them with better loot.
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Cybsled
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Taste is subjective, but I fail to see how sitting in a fucking room for 5 hours is superior to clearing a dungeon. I mean, I guess it is easier to AFK and do something else while doing EQ1 style camping.
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TJT
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Okay take a step back here.
One of my favorite dungeons ever created in any game is Blackrock Depths. It is very obviously a love letter to its predecessors like Guk or Seb. Now, running that place with its scripted events and cool shit in it the first few times? Awesome. Beyond that, it's like a three-hour slog you just get tired of.
That place would have been much improved if it was just a sprawling area to hangout in.
There is a reason WoW's McDungeons became a 30 minute or so affair with simplistic designs and limited cutscenes or scripted events. Because that's efficient. Considering how a hallmark of WOW(or any MMO) is just hanging in Orgrimmar doing fucking nothing people clearly have no problem sitting around doing "nothing." They would certainly do so for money, items and advancement. That hasn't changed.
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And it doesn’t have to be that many people that are interested in a modern day EQ for this to be a successful endeavor. They’re deliberately designing a niche MMO with a lean team.
That’s far more exciting to me than a AAA MMO targeted at a massive audience. As so many MMOs have proven over the last decade or so, what I want in an MMO and what the masses want in an MMO are two very different things.
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ili
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If Project Gorgon, two dudes, can do it. I don't see why these guys can't. The only problem with being to niche of a game, in group based gaming, is that there will be nobody around to group with, which I'm sure they have thought about. Project Gorgon has about 120 active users a day.
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Kaines
Potato Supreme
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This is like complaining the automotive market is shit because they don’t sell Hondas with monster truck tires.
No, the MMO market is quite strong it just doesn’t offer what YOU want. Hopefully these guys give you an MMO you like, but if it really does turn out to be a Honda with monster truck tires, don’t be surprised if it’s a ghost town in 6 months.
Is this supposed to be responsive to my post? I didn’t say the MMO market is shit or that the MMO market isn’t strong. And I did say that it currently isn’t offering what I want.
I’m also not following your analogy. I mean, I guess I understand where you’re trying to go, but I don’t see how this analogy helps you get there. I don’t have any reason to believe—and I’m guessing you don’t either—that a Honda with monster truck tires has the same demand relative to the auto market that a spiritual successor to EQ has relative to the MMO market. But the fact that EQ has been done before, was relatively popular, and still has a loyal following differentiates a spiritual successor to EQ from your Honda with monster truck tires enough that your analogy isn’t doing any work.
If you’re just trying to say this game won’t appeal to the masses, that’s also what I said.
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Cybsled
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It does bring up a good point, though: How do you deal with a grouping required game that doesn’t have a healthy enough population for a given level range at any given time? How do you attract new players if your established Playerbase has long since moved past the low level content?
The 2nd thing could probably be addressed like ESO handled it: Everything scales to the individual, so a level 5 and a level 50 can fight the same thing and get a scaled challenge and scaled loot. The first thing is a bit harder to crack: If you make stuff soloable, then it erodes what you’re trying to do as a game concept. But if you don’t address it, then your game dies and players quit because they can’t get shit done. People forget that is why modern MMOs gravitated towards that model: If you only have an hour to play and it takes 49 minutes to find a group, eventually you give up on the game. That happened to me in FFXI: my friends played more and leveled past me, so we couldn’t group anymore, and I got tired of spending lots of time trying to get a group and worse yet, the group sucked and I ended the day with less XP than I started with
The 2nd thing could probably be addressed like ESO handled it: Everything scales to the individual, so a level 5 and a level 50 can fight the same thing and get a scaled challenge and scaled loot. The first thing is a bit harder to crack: If you make stuff soloable, then it erodes what you’re trying to do as a game concept. But if you don’t address it, then your game dies and players quit because they can’t get shit done. People forget that is why modern MMOs gravitated towards that model: If you only have an hour to play and it takes 49 minutes to find a group, eventually you give up on the game. That happened to me in FFXI: my friends played more and leveled past me, so we couldn’t group anymore, and I got tired of spending lots of time trying to get a group and worse yet, the group sucked and I ended the day with less XP than I started with
ZyyzYzzy
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