The Tattered Notebook What I Need To See In EverQuest Next

I used to be going to update you superb folk on my adventures in rolling my 17,000th EverQuest II alt for this week's Tattered Notebook, however SOE determined to drop a Fan Faire Dwell date on us, which sort of mucked up my nefarious plans.

Why can we care about SOE Stay? Nicely, there are multiple reasons, but an important one is that as an alternative of getting to attend till October, we now get to see (and touch!) EverQuest Subsequent in early August!

This news threw me for a bit of a loop, I don't thoughts telling you. I mean, I knew that SOE's John Smedley flat-out assured a playable EQNext demo at SOE Stay 2013. And i knew that it is in fact 2013 already, so arms-on time with what is perhaps the following nice sandbox will happen inside of a calendar year. It nonetheless appeared really far off for some motive, although, I guess because it was just three months ago that we had been ending up SOE Stay 2012. August 1st goes to be right here before we know it, so it is excessive time we begin prognosticating about EQNext, would not you agree?

Hopefully it goes without saying that I might wish to see this stuff along with the same old high-high quality PvE questing, dungeon, raid, and progression content material.

Heritage quests

Even though I performed the unique EverQuest for only about a month, I love love love EverQuest II's heritage lines. In a franchise that already sets the usual for MMO lore, it was a genius idea to tie the two video games collectively and throw EQ vets a nostalgia-drenched bone by offering up prolonged epic quests with EQ-centric item rewards.

More like that in EQNext, please.

Housing

You recognize SOE goes to place housing in EQNext, as the corporate does the characteristic better than some other MMO developer (sorry Trion -- great effort, though). The question is how can it ever be pretty much as good as EQII's implementation. Realistically I do not suppose it can, not less than not at release. It is literally a sport-within-the-sport that has more in common with Minecraft than typical MMO afterthought design, so if it takes SOE a while to suit it into EQNext's framework, I am Okay with that. Whereas we're dreaming, I'd also be more than Okay with SOE discovering a way to do EQII's housing in an open-world environment.

And sure, I do know, Mr. Hardcore Gamer, housing and non-combat choices are for Barbie lovers and casuals and no one uses them. Apart from the tens of thousands and thousands of players who have made the Sims franchise the most well-liked in the history of the non-public computer.

A crafter-driven financial system

This goes to be difficult for SOE to tug off, particularly given the loot-drop legacy of themeparks like EQ and EQII. My definition of sandbox is built on an precise participant economy, though, and certainly one of my frustrations with EQII is the vast, intricate, and enjoyable crafting system that is sort of totally wasted on a recreation the place a lot of the gear is mob-dropped and bind-on-equip.

I do not envy the designers here as a result of along with the balancing challenges inherent in making and maintaining a sandbox economy, they've also obtained to deal with the psyche of the new-school MMO player who does not need to be bothered with crafters and who desires to remote auction his gear with a minimal of effort and player interaction. At the identical time, the firm has minced no phrases about the truth that EQNext is a participant-driven sandbox, so how it navigates this potential minefield might be interesting to observe.

Good guild tools

Copy EQII's guild instruments. Something much less makes Jef cry. The top.

Issues I do not need to see

Earlier than I knock off for the day, let me spend a couple of paragraphs on issues I don't wish to see. Firstly, in-game VOIP. Look, I understand it makes for an excellent back-of-the-box (do we still have game packing containers?) bullet level, but the reality is that it's a waste of development resources even when it's shoe-horned in there by a 3rd party.

I imply, actually, what guild with a clue doesn't use Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, or Mumble as of late? These are all free apps -- until you are the guild chief paying for the server, and even then it's usually a lot cheaper than a conventional MMO sub -- and so they dwarf the performance found in current in-game options. In-recreation VOIP goes to be laggy, it will sound like crap, and the one people who might use it for greater than 5 minutes are the poor saps in pickup dungeon teams.

Secondly, let's not have any of that dev-generated private story foolishness or the related voice-acting. This is a massively multiplayer sandbox, after all, and that i can think of at the least two current AAA titles which have accomplished greater than enough to justify tossing these concepts onto the proverbial pile of MMO fail. I'm probably preaching to the choir here, as Smedley has given multiple interviews over the previous few months that illustrate the corporate's "the players are the content" motto. I'm Just Here To Blog But, still. MMORPG. Sandbox. Mega Blog Please do not with the one-player savior-of-the-cosmos nonsense. Thanks.

What's in a name?

Whew. This is not an exhaustive record in fact, and I am quite curious to see what some of you want to see in EQNext. Rest assured that we'll be revisiting this topic often as SOE ramps up to its August reveal and past.

And with that, let's deliver this week's issue of The Tattered Notebook to a close. Oh, that reminds me! With EQNext in our close to future, MJ and i are likely going to rename the column at some point, each as a solution to freshen issues up and to better seize the spirit of the franchise going ahead. And we'd love your help! Be at liberty to submit your recommendations in the feedback or contact us immediately by way of [email protected] or [email protected].

EverQuest II is so huge that it takes two authors to make sense of all of it! Be a part of Jef Reahard and MJ Guthrie as they explore Norrathian nooks and crannies from the Overrealm to Timorous Deep. Running every Saturday, The Tattered Notebook is your resource for all issues EQII and EQNext -- and catch MJ every 'EverQuest Two-sday' on Massively Tv!