EQ2: GU36 preview

Some preview information was released today about the forthcoming Game Update 36. Below is the copy-pasta from eq2players.com:

Game Update 36 Preview
So you've adventured through Darklight Wood and Neriak and now are left wondering what's next in EverQuest II? Don't think for a moment that you get to catch your breath, the dev team has been hard at work on Game Update 36 and it's time to share a preview of all the new things headed your way soon!

The Final Chapters

The Swords of Destiny quest line will draw to a close with GU36, providing players a chance to complete their quest and discover the final details about the place of these infamous swords in history, and their role in Norrath's future.

New Raid Zone

The Throne of New Tunaria (aka Felwithe Castle) will be available as an instance for high level raid groups to explore and defeat. There will be ample opportunities not just for a very challenging instance, but also exploration of the lore surrounding the Thexian Throne.

Dressing Room

GU36 will also bring a new window in which players can preview how many items appear in EverQuest II. You'll be able to preview weapons, garments, armor, furniture, mounts, and more before buying them. This new window will allow you to preview these items from links, merchants, brokers, recipe books, during trades, while inspecting others, in the commission window, and more.

Tradeskill Profession Reset Option

If you are an Artisan of level 10 or greater, you'll be able to reset your tradeskill profession and choose another to start from level 9. To do so, visit a Tradeskill Career Counselor in any of the major cities and request the ability to start over.

PvP Gameplay

PvP Players will also note a number of changes designed to improve PvP combat by making it much more equitable in level ranges where victory or loss was determined solely either by a character's class or how many Achievements they had managed to store up. Come join the thread already in progress on our PvP forums!

Neriak and Kelethin Status Housing Options

For those who prefer to pay for their housing in more Status than coin, there are new housing options available in Neriak and Kelethin for many existing housing models.

Kingdom of Sky Achievement Tree Review

The Achievement Trees introduced with the Kingdom of Sky expansion have been revisited to increase the number of options available to each character, and to improve their desirability. Weapon specific requirements for the class trees have been dropped with the exception of trees that require shields and ranged weapons. Pet Achievements have been revisited to take advantage of new functionality introduced to the game with the Echoes of Faydwer expansion. Finally, branches that were less than desirable have been revisited to improve their viability and provide more options to everyone.

No More Destroying Copper

Coins now have no weight and automagically make correct change as you loot more. This means you are free to carry as many coins on your character as you wish, with no ramifications in terms of weight. Your inventories will now also auto-sort coins to make your bookkeeping a bit easier. If you acquire 100 copper, your inventory will show that you have gained a silver coin. 100 silver will result in a gain of a gold coin. 100 gold will carry over into a single platinum.

There you have it! Game Update 36 will be packed full of new content, and changes to Gameplay that will result in a better experience for all, and a chance to explore many new options. If you were looking for a new dungeon, weapon, or approach to your character, this update will have something for you.

Discuss the GU36 Preview in this thread

New, free content is always a good thing and here we have a new raid instance, and a followup to a quest line. It's not a whole lot, sure - but remember they just gave us Neriak and Darklight Wood (oh yeah, and the little emo fairies, the Arasai).

There are some pvp changes going in, but I don't think I have ever once pvp'd in this game. Not even a duel. Wow ok, I should give it a try some time. Some housing option changes - that should please those who are like me and have little coin, but a bankroll of status points.

The rest is really pure win. Now you little rats and fairies don't have to constantly run to the bank to change over your coin as coin is now weightless. I foresee some little whiners complaining about this, saying it ruins the immersion if coin is weightless. Shut up. Really, just shut up.


KoS Achievement revamp is going to be iffy. On one hand, I am really looking forward to it - especially the removal of the weapon restrictions. But I am worried they might nerf some stuff they really shouldn't. We shall have to wait and see here, but I am hoping it's really going to be killer.

And *finally* they are adding a dressing room. No more running around in mixmatch armor! Some of us do actually like to look badass while we mow down mobs - a percentage won't care either way I am sure though.

All in all, I am really excited with the coming changes, and very happy to see that SoE is *listening* to it's player base - unlike a certain other vastly popular game. Good job guys, please keep it up :)

Bad design in MMOs - Part One - BoE

Introduction
BoE, or Bind on Equip, is terminology used to describe a game mechanic where an item, once equipped by a player character, can no longer be traded or sold to another player in the game. There is another similar term BoP, or Bind on Pickup also known as Bind on Acquire, which provides the same mechanic, but it is applied when the player acquires the item instead of when they equip it. The umbrella term typically applied to the mechanic of tying a specific item to a player is "soulbinding". The argument for these mechanics is that they provide a way to restrict the flow of items in the game world and to help keep the value of desirable items high. The argument against, is usually that it restricts players' freedom and that it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense from a in-game (or possibly RP - Role Play) perspective.

Most players can accept a Bind on Pickup system for items that require a raid to obtain or a long quest chain to be completed, though there are some who believe that no items, under any circumstance, should ever be soulbound to a player. In Everquest, for example, most items were freely trade-able except for the high end raid-obtainable armor and weapons and epic weapons. Popular items, such as SSoY (Short Sword of the Ykesha) or Fungi Tunic were often seen for sale in the trade areas of the game. I even obtained a Fungi on my low/mid level warrior, as I spent a lot of time soloing. Items like these were also very popular on the external item selling websites, such as Player Auctions.

The Pros
Inflation is one thing in most MMOs that is very hard to avoid. As players become richer, they are more willing to pay more and more to twink out their alts. Eventually, that item that sold for 5 gold the first two months the game was available, is now selling for 75 gold a year and a half later. There is also reverse inflation, which typically happens when BoE is not implemented, wherein items that were once the elite must-haves, are now a dime a dozen. Many times, players spend days trying to sell these - when there was a time they sold almost as soon as they were put up for sale.

Twinking is a term that is used to describe the act of a player with a high level character, using money from that character to buy high-end items for one of their lower level charcters, commonly know as "alts" - short for "Alternatives" or "Alternative Characters". A BoE system helps curb this act in some regards, as there is not a high availability of high end items, as most of them are being or have been used already. However, Twinking is more effectively curbed using a level-restriction system - which requires a character to be a certain level before an item may be equipped.

The Cons
With a BoE system, players are no longer able to sell their old gear. Nor can they pass it along to a friend. In Everquest, it was quite common for a high level player to "donate" gear they had outgrown to a lower level friend or guildmate. It was also possible for higher level players to "farm" gear for lower level players. I know I was the recipient of a few high level items on my level 14 mage, thanks to a high level druid friend of mine. Many developers and some players think that this act will make the low level player overpowered; a "god among mortals". I would like to suggest that this is not the case. Sure, it makes them somewhat stronger - but I can guarantee you that my mage, and my warrior (who had a fungi tunic) was far from overpowered. When soloing, my mage still died. My warrior still had to sit forever after killing something to "heal up" - even with the regen bonus from the fungi tunic. However, I was not decked out with high level items. If my warrior, at level 30, had a full set of level 50 armor - then yes most likely he wouldn't be taking a lot of damage at all.

The freedom of helping out a lower level character, of twinking out your alts is something some of us cry foul over. Combine that with a RP (role play) aspect, and it really doesn't make much sense. How come, after I equip uber_sword_01, I can't give it to the guy standing next to me, but I can run across town and sell it to a NPC vendor?

I think the main gripe is though, that once you are done with an item, you are not able to sell it to another player for a decent amount of coin. In WoW for example, there are several BoE epic-quality items that are found and sold to players for hundreds, if not thousands, of gold. This is a prime market for so called "Gold Farmers". They spend hours and hours and hours doing nothing but killing mobs over and over again. They don't quest, they don't contribute the game world, except to steal spawns from legit players - and then sell the gold they acquire for real life money. They also acquire several items that can be sold to other players. With the BoE system in place, the gold farmers, at least in WoW, are the primary source for BoE epic-quality items. If BoE was not implemented, you could buy that new shiny hammer for 800 gold, then use it for a while, and then turn around and re-sell it. This alone would help curb gold farming. Since they would not be the near-sole supplier of these items, they would have a harder time selling them and hence, have a harder time meeting their quotas, possibly eventually forcing them out of their "job".

In Closing
BoE is a lazy system, by lazy developers. Most developers claim twinking is one of the big motivational factors along with preventing gold farming. Their reasoning that this prevents gold farming is that, gold farmers can run a dungeon/instance over and over again and then flood the market with obtained items. As stated, a level-restriction system helps stop massive twinking. To stop the farming of instances, there are other methods that can be implemented - instance lockout timers, modifications to the loot dropping system, etc. BoE has no place in today's MMOs and should never have been implemented in the first place. Come on guys - you are the ones getting paid to develop these games - give us back our freedom and curb the unwanted elements of the game with less restrictive mechanics.

Bad design in MMOs - Introduction

Curt Schilling posed a question to the posters of the FoH forums the other day, asking what was the one thing each poster hated about MMOs. The answers varied from quick replies, to long drawn out responses (mine was one of the later) which were accused of not even answering his question! For me, I picked two topics that really held weight with me, even though there are several I could have listed and expanded upon. Instead of polluting up Curt's thread, I am going to make a series of articles here which delves into some of the topics that are hot-button items with many MMO gamers, including myself. I will rehash the two topics I commented on in Curt's thread, but will attempt to touch on each topic in a structured way which presents the good and bad of each, instead of just off-the-cuff ramblings. Some of the topics will be borrowed from postings on Curt's thread, but I will comment on them in my own words and using my own viewpoint on them. The first article in the series should be hitting this blog later today.