Discussion - Evolution of Everquest (1 Viewer)

[Doc James]

I was doing some thinking recently, on the possibility that somehow Everquest will evolve to something more than just "1 CPU controlled toon "AKA Merc". They know about MQ already. Who is to say they eventually just build all this into the game, and let it evolve for all players to enjoy as something baked in at some point? I believe I remember some sort of discussion between SOE and the community at some point saying they could never have an CPU controlled player. But here we are with mercs. Amongst other game mechanics they swore would never work out. What are peoples thoughts on MQ becoming part of their "code" eventually?

 

[Sic]

they've implemented (usually poorly) lots of stuff that MQ came up with and did first. Even code fixes that they couldn't figureout/find, which is downright hilarious.

I don't think they could realistically replace what mq brings to the table in a way that would make mq obsolete

 

[Redfrog]

I think one day it will, perhaps before it sunsets, it will become a last ditch change to see if it changes player usage and potential growth financially (selling multipack expansions at a discount, enticing more store purchases, etc.) I hope, but SOE/Verant/DBG/DPG never seem to market themselves well. I may see it before I'm in my coffin.

 

[Szazor]

The issue will probably come down to development costs. When was the last time they did a Quality of Life upgrade.
They cant even get /fol to work.

Even if they did incorporate some mq type functions - are they going to let me control 54 toons? Their mercs are no where near up to the same level as a mq toon.

I think they will eventually need to open development to outsiders. People love EQ and want to see it continue for another 20 years - well they should give us the tools to do it.

They just need to work on Quality control then - so each raid is not just like Zlandicar!

 

[Blas]

Or maybe raids have to be tuned to less people. I play on the dark exile Emulator. Raids are tuned for 8 people. Your ip limit is the same number. Having a blast. It is progression locked and with every expansion it get's harder. Typically i play with someone else on raids cause i suck at the game and towards GoD you need to be BiS equiped to crack those raids.

 

[Phalanx]

This is a very profitable game. Its jank is what people like about it. I'd never play without this community, but I guess the sheeple feel otherwise.

 

[an_image]

they've implemented (usually poorly) lots of stuff that MQ came up with and did first. Even code fixes that they couldn't figureout/find, which is downright hilarious.

I don't think they could realistically replace what mq brings to the table in a way that would make mq obsolete

True and there's no AI as good as @Sic to merge our forum replies either...

 

[Robren911]

I would personally love it Doc. I would also like to see the diversity in Merc and actually a volume of Mercs where a player could use a full group of Mercs I think that would be the first step.

 

[Hulda99]

I think the 25th anniversary will show us just how much money they can spend on this game. Or lets say, how much they are "willing" to spend. Will it be a rehashing of stuff we've seen already? "OMG, a new TLP". Or actually new concept, new art, etc. Also will be interesting to see if the next expansion will tie into the 25th in any way, or, just another standalone push forward.

 

[Vrakenor]

Doc

I was doing some thinking recently

uh oh...are you actually allowed to do that? Think, I mean. Lol, jk man, I couldn't resist. My wife says it's not allowed and she will do all my thinking for me. Then I just punch her in the snoot and say "How do you like that? What do you think?" Shuts her right up hehe. (I don't really punch her, but I'm just saying)

I watched a newish video from Ion Blaze the other day talking about this very thing. He expounded on the idea of just giving MQer's their own server and let them go nuts. It seems that there is some legal mumbo jumbo about how they can't come right out and admit that they allow cheating. The way I see it, is that this game is over 20 years old now and like, who gives a shit anymore? And if everyone on the server is doing it, then it's not cheating is it? They put so little back into this game, like what someone said above. And even when they do, they screw it up lol. I really like what someone said above about opening it up to outside devs. I mean did you see that video about EQ on the Unreal 5 engine? That was awesome. I would gladly pay for that one all by itself. But noooo, we can't do that. Even though someone has already done it. Man if I ran my companies like that, I would of been out of business a long time ago.

Ok rant off, thanks for reading.

Vrak

 

[dezeran]

Doc

uh oh...are you actually allowed to do that? Think, I mean. Lol, jk man, I couldn't resist. My wife says it's not allowed and she will do all my thinking for me. Then I just punch her in the snoot and say "How do you like that? What do you think?" Shuts her right up hehe. (I don't really punch her, but I'm just saying)

I watched a newish video from Ion Blaze the other day talking about this very thing. He expounded on the idea of just giving MQer's their own server and let them go nuts. It seems that there is some legal mumbo jumbo about how they can't come right out and admit that they allow cheating. The way I see it, is that this game is over 20 years old now and like, who gives a shit anymore? And if everyone on the server is doing it, then it's not cheating is it? They put so little back into this game, like what someone said above. And even when they do, they screw it up lol. I really like what someone said above about opening it up to outside devs. I mean did you see that video about EQ on the Unreal 5 engine? That was awesome. I would gladly pay for that one all by itself. But noooo, we can't do that. Even though someone has already done it. Man if I ran my companies like that, I would of been out of business a long time ago.

Ok rant off, thanks for reading.

Vrak

EQ2 used to have a server like that. you would get sent there for major naughty things. Also you could request your entire account be moved. But that account could no longer be played on live servers at all. It ran for many years and was shut down less than a year or two ago.

• This is a "one-way ticket" to a prison for your entire account for players who've been caught cheating or who have otherwise managed to get their account flagged as problematic.
• Read more about it on EQ2 Wire's post, The Prison Server Experiment

 

[Sic]

Anyone who wants dbg to have their own server for mq really doesn't full appreciate what that looks or sounds like. Not only does it not solve the desire for people to use mq in their existing guilds.

This gets brought up every so often and is just a really poorly thought out terrible idea

Even holly said it was a bad idea (from dbg side).

 

[Kambic]

Anyone who wants dbg to have their own server for mq really doesn't full appreciate what that looks or sounds like. Not only does it not solve the desire for people to use mq in their existing guilds.

This gets brought up every so often and is just a really poorly thought out terrible idea

Even holly said it was a bad idea (from dbg side).

Plus as many Rizlona players learned, you never know when DBG is gonna change their minds about what's allowed and what isn't...

 

[killerclown]

they could make a bard merc !!

 

[BrianGragg]

they could make a bard merc !!

That would require someone actually knowing how a bard works at the company....

 

[Vrakenor]

Sic

I guess I am just really dull or just having a brain fart here, so could you please expound on this?

Anyone who wants dbg to have their own server for mq really doesn't full appreciate what that looks or sounds like.

And this one just doesn't make any sense to me at all.

Not only does it not solve the desire for people to use mq in their existing guilds.

Hope you can clarify, I read both sentences a few times and I still don't understand either of them.

Thanks

Vrak

 

[Sic]

Sic

I guess I am just really dull or just having a brain fart here, so could you please expound on this?



And this one just doesn't make any sense to me at all.



Hope you can clarify, I read both sentences a few times and I still don't understand either of them.

Thanks

Vrak

People don't just use MQ because they want to automate stuff. They use MQ because they want automate the characters that they have in the place that they have them. A lot of people use automation for their own personal use and then go hang out with their guild during raids. The idea that people who use automation are just going to disappear to some jail server where DBG, Canon has just without warning delete all of the characters, is foolish. It would stop just about zero people from still wanting to use macroquest on the servers that they've had characters for all these years.


Even Holly when she was still at daybreak said that they everquest two jail server was a terrible idea. She did bounce it around back and forth as something forever quest one and decided that it was a bad idea and decided not to do it.

You have to understand that these jail servers get zero customer service. You literally get the most hostile toxic nasty terrible situation you can imagine because there's no repercussions for anything at all. You become a second class citizen while still paying first class citizen prices.

Go look at the innumerable amounts of discussions on this particular topic and you'll see the things that I mean.

Anybody who still wants us either a just doesn't care and potentially wants to be one of those toxic hostile people because that's how they get their jollies off or b: doesn't actually understand what they're asking for which is what I said.

I have to imagine most people just don't understand what they're asking for.

I've had personal conversation with Holly about this topic, and they were group conversations about this when we had the focus group for rizlona. Rizono was supposed to be a non-second class citizen macro quest server but that all changed and got shot down and never went into terms of service and pretty much anything that mentions the intention that they originally had behind it have been erased.

That focus group actually took a vote as to whether or not to allow macroquest to exist on that server and it passed. The vote to allow firiona vie Looting did not pass. I still have the screenshots and logs from those conversations but they've been posted all over.

EverQuest 2 recently closed their " prison server " everyone's characters that they had on them for years were just straight up deleted. Gone gone.

Fuck that noise.

 

[Vrakenor]

Thanks for clarifying Sic. Appreciate your time to type that up.

I didn't even know about the whole Rizlona thing. Nor all the discussion about "Prison" servers. I had heard of the prison server thing but only in passing. And no I really don't want the kind of server where all the assholes go to play either. And deleting all your characters at a whim is BS too. I guess I didn't realize how deep down the rabbit hole this all went.

So just to keep this conversation going, what can be done? Like I said before, this game is over 20 years old. Why the continued "give a shit" attitude about using MQ? I mean the accounts get paid for. So why the bans? And the hate? I mean ISBoxer came out like 18 years ago, it is a well known commodity. I realize that there are people who will abuse MQ, but then there just aren't a whole lot of people online anymore either. I have 2 groups on FV and I use PoK extensively. No one says a word to me about it. It's like no one even notices. I go all over the place to level, I stay out of peoples way and don't hog camps and don't afk, so I don't give people a lot of reason to notice, but not a word in over a year. I don't really have an answer, other than I just wish DBG would stick their collective head in the sand and just ignore this little conundrum. But you know the old saying, wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first. Shrug.

Vrak

 

[Sic]

Thanks for clarifying Sic. Appreciate your time to type that up.

I didn't even know about the whole Rizlona thing. Nor all the discussion about "Prison" servers. I had heard of the prison server thing but only in passing. And no I really don't want the kind of server where all the assholes go to play either. And deleting all your characters at a whim is BS too. I guess I didn't realize how deep down the rabbit hole this all went.

So just to keep this conversation going, what can be done? Like I said before, this game is over 20 years old. Why the continued "give a shit" attitude about using MQ? I mean the accounts get paid for. So why the bans? And the hate? I mean ISBoxer came out like 18 years ago, it is a well known commodity. I realize that there are people who will abuse MQ, but then there just aren't a whole lot of people online anymore either. I have 2 groups on FV and I use PoK extensively. No one says a word to me about it. It's like no one even notices. I go all over the place to level, I stay out of peoples way and don't hog camps and don't afk, so I don't give people a lot of reason to notice, but not a word in over a year. I don't really have an answer, other than I just wish DBG would stick their collective head in the sand and just ignore this little conundrum. But you know the old saying, wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first. Shrug.

Vrak

personally, I think MQ and RG should keep doing what we do.

- try and take care to be smart about usage. discourage afk, avoid active hacks or other disruptive play. not advertise usage in "mixed" company
- harbor and nurture a good constructive community
- continue to try and work on dialog / communication with dbg; we had great dialog paths in the past, and i hope we can do so again in the future. DW and Holly both leaving hurt those efforts.
- continue to try and "enchance" or "add quality of life" to eq gameplay and avoid things that negatively impact the game, the experience of others, or add unnecessary increased efforts to dbg customer service / development teams.


frankly, i think dbg would like the "best of both worlds" with it - folks doing things that incite online outrage, social media outrage, forum outrage, discord outrage, pitchforks and torches about "haxx()rs ruining their lands" increasing their customer service ticket queue obviously hurts them. Encouraging mq usage in a way that can eliminate those things... I suspect dbg would be pretty happy with.

In previous discussions some of their biggest painpoints were: petitions by players with hack-usations and petitions from players with a bad RMT transaction situation (JChan talks about this in one of her twitch interviews).

It is also worthwhile considering that the lifespan of an MQ user might well indeed be longer than the career length of someone - or the decision path of dbg. Keep fighting the good fight, imo.