...Everquest? No really? Everyquest?

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PhoneLobster
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...Everquest? No really? Everyquest?

Post by PhoneLobster »

So blah blah, buzz on Rock Paper Shotgun is WTF? Suddenly Everquest next is a thing that people care about.

I agree with one of their articles. Up until right now anyone showing interest in a new Everquest was probably some sort of alien pod person. And then suddenly overnight if even half their claimed features are in it's the most interesting looking near future MMO on the market.

I don't even like MMO's, or Minecraft (which is probably it's other big influence). I've always wanted to like both but they've always been significantly lacking in various key ways. Yet I'll have to say. I'm interested in this.

They're even releasing a sort of byproduct game that looks like it's directly targetted as a kinda "minecraft killer". And frankly... it looks fairly promising.

The game itself is going to apparently incorporate to some degree about every wet dream MMO feature anyone ever wanted and that mainstream MMO's until now have just said "no too hard".

Voxel based (high res voxel based) everything

Destructible everything

Attacks that destroy fairly nice large chunks of terrain.

Free access to go everywhere

Procedurally generated terrain/adventures/dungeons/caverns/stuff

Fast dynamic jumpy navigation of terrain

What looks like some very action oriented at least somewhat skill based combat.

User generated content

NPCs and NPC AI that does stuff and reacts rather than just being mindless respawning mobs.

A fairly interesting sounding "discoverable" class/class feature system with customizable player classes.

Those custom world effecting missions all the MMO fans keep asking for


I mean hey, SOME of these are promises we've heard before. One or two have even been delivered on (certainly some newer attempts at MMOs have some much nicer actiony combat systems). But the promotional stuff for this actually looks like they are genuinely a long way into delivering pretty well on a lot of this. Certainly the whole voxel/destructible/customizable bit is looking believably promising already.

So we apparently live in a weird ass future no one imagined where suddenly Everquest looks like an interesting franchise to look out for the next sequel... Really? How the hell did this even happen?
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Fuchs
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Post by Fuchs »

Too many MMOGs were going for coyping either WoW or Korean Lineage-style grinders, without much success, so SOE proably got the go ahead to become innovative again.
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Post by K »

If Everquest can do even half of the things it promises, it's going to be a great game. I mean, Diablo 3 promised destructable environments and we got glorified barrels, so I'm taking some promises with a grain of salt.

That being said, I'd really like an MMO that wasn't a grindy timesink or a proof of concept for Ponzi schemes.
Last edited by K on Sun Aug 11, 2013 7:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ikeren
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Post by Ikeren »

EQ1 was brilliant and innovative for it's time. It's not entirely outside the realm of imagination that EQNext could do something.

Pathfinder's really trying to win on similar points, and people are super pumped about TES:online, too. Hard to say if any of them will actually succeed at their goals of "being different."
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Judging__Eagle
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Post by Judging__Eagle »

Well, just watching the videos of EQ Next, I'm impressed.

Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4nswWwgLEw

Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDq2a3zy_6M

I'll admit that I have deep reservations over "any" sort of "class system"; and hard tying of abilities to tools, but the Destructability/Constructibility; the Reactive World/Emergent AI; and Permanent World Change are universally wanted things in MMOs.

I'm reminded of Frank writing up a few years ago about what is bad in MMOs; and it feels like at least some of what he talked about is covered in this.

Edit: I'm ambivalent on the art direction, it's more akin to WoW than it is to how EQ/EQ2 used to look.
Last edited by Judging__Eagle on Mon Aug 12, 2013 11:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by K »

The art direction is more FFXI in my mind. It's less cartoony and has prettier scenery..
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OgreBattle
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Re: ...Everquest? No really? Everyquest?

Post by OgreBattle »

PhoneLobster wrote: The game itself is going to apparently incorporate to some degree about every wet dream MMO feature anyone ever wanted and that mainstream MMO's until now have just said "no too hard".

Voxel based (high res voxel based) everything

Destructible everything

Attacks that destroy fairly nice large chunks of terrain.

Free access to go everywhere

Procedurally generated terrain/adventures/dungeons/caverns/stuff

Fast dynamic jumpy navigation of terrain

What looks like some very action oriented at least somewhat skill based combat.

User generated content


Here's a preview of what the game will look like:
Image
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Post by K »

I expect that CustServ will flag golden cocks. People will have to get really creative.

The EQ golden cocks would look a lot nicer too. I watched a whole video on the beveling features of the design tools.
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Post by PhoneLobster »

K wrote:I expect that CustServ will flag golden cocks. People will have to get really creative.
They actually deliver an almost funny joke, something along the lines of "free you to create your wildest imaginings (subject to approval from customer service)" in one of the main announcement presentations with that alarmingly cocky smug seeming presenter (who might just actually have good reason to be smug and cocky if this is anything other than vaporware).

And yeah, the beveling stuff looks really nice. A giant landscape sized golden cock could look, well, depending on what will probably be a good lighting engine and how nice metallic materials are, a little alarmingly majestic I suspect.
Last edited by PhoneLobster on Tue Aug 13, 2013 7:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Bihlbo »

After seeing The Elder Scrolls Online at PAX this past weekend, I'm not sure which looks better. TESO plays a lot like Age of Conan-meets-early Star Wars Galaxies and feels like Skyrim with littler people and bigger terrain. That simplistic description of it makes it sound like crap, and it very well may be totally underwhelming, but as it is just barely in beta and it has Bethesda behind it, the game could end up being a lot better than what I saw.

EQN has features that sound more like a wet dream than a plan for an MMO. If it delivers it will revolutionize things, and MMOs desperately need that. However, it's looking pretty cartoony, and with things like double jump thrown in I'm wondering if they're going to end up with something that plays more like a multiplayer Mario64. Certainly someone's going to make Peach's Castle. That crap makes me cringe. With so much good stuff being made by players and handled by players (Nexus, mod packs, etc) I'm hoping Sony does something they've never done before: release a little bit of their power to the community. I know, pipe dream, but I'd rather be edited by my peers than by someone who has to answer to a legal team and the marketing department.

Both look like they have added in enough interface clutter to make it easy to play for people who are coming from the wasteland of Korean grindfests and WoW clones, and are making it fast-paced enough to appeal to people who think it's supposed to be an FPS with swords. Both of these things cut into the immersion pie. Then again, I could be an MMO grognard.
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Post by DSMatticus »

Honestly, the decision to make an Elder Scrolls MMORPG shows a remarkable lack of self-awareness. What's the last game Bethesda made that wasn't complete and total shit mechanically?

And you know what? That's worked out fine for them, because they make a singleplayer game. People aren't going online and comparing builds. People will play through the whole game with a character who fails miserably at life and they won't even notice how shit their character is, they will just think the game is "kinda hard." And if someone does care about getting the mechanics to work, well, they can go to the Nexus and pick one of many balance overhauls. Bethesda is bad at math, and that's okay because obfuscation and crowdsourcing.

That doesn't actually work with an MMORPG. Even PvE is competitive (you're taking up space on a team; stop sucking, noob), and people do care how builds compare and you can't crowdsource it to the modding community. So hopefully Bethesda has had the good sense to keep their core team well the fuck away from TESO and bring in lots of outsiders, because they are god awful at exactly everything an MMORPG needs.
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