Mobhunter: Refunds, Mergers, and Flags

This week we saw the largest update in some time. Wednesday's patch included pages and pages of changes covering everything from the long awaited backflag solutions to new hotzones and alternate advancement point refunds.

We discussed a these changes previously so I will only touch on a few things. The AA refunds, for the most part, seem to be very reasonable. SOE's goal was to make the point costs of Gates AAs fit better with the costs found in Omens of War. In a few days we should know how well this meets the desires of those it effects.

The backflagging solution should help guilds. While some guilds stayed at their current rate of power and delved deep into Anguish, other guilds began opening their doors wide open to new recruits since the release of EQ2 and WoW. These backflag changes help guilds continue to progress at the point they left off by using the 85/15 rule to bring in unflagged recruits. Because guilds won't have to backflag, they should be able to retain members rather than lose them. These backflag changes came at a good time for many raiding forces.

A few older zones had their experience modifiers increased including Shadeweaver's Thicket, Kurn's Tower, Unrest, Crystal Caverns, Solusek's Eye, Katta Castellum, Lower Guk, Nagafen's Lair, and Umbral Plains. These new hot zones should help get newer players into zones they might otherwise skip for newer content. I like the idea behind hotzones. Without too much effort, older zones become much more desirable than they once were.

Tacvi, the deepest and darkest corner of the Gates of Discord expansion, had a couple of nice changes for those powerful enough to reach it. It received a new zone in that doesn't require the weekly slaying of an ubermob to enter. This prevents guilds from simply waiting until another guild comes by and takes care of the large fellow. Tacvi also received a larger cache of new loot. I would expect this loot to be on par with the equipment we see coming from the depths of Anguish.

We saw our first wave of epic alterations this patch. These updates mainly handled the content required to receive the epic, but more than once we've heard that the epic effects themselves will be looked at. Expect to see some changes to epic 1.5s and 2.0s coming soon.

Both /autofire and /melody made it into this patch. Many archers and song singers rejoiced.

The two revamped zones, Mistmoore and Splitpaw made it to the Legends servers. I haven't yet heard what sort of content we can expect, but rumors speak to Elemental-level beasties worming their way through the infected paw of the Karanas. We shall wait and see. Expect these zones to make it to the live servers in about a month.

While we saw many good changes for the upper-end of the game, we didn't see that many that effected the larger group of players below level 65. Backflagging, epic 1.5 changes, and Tacvi matters to high-end raiders, but there wasn't much in this patch for the larger group of non-raiders and single-group hunters. At this critical stage, SOE must consider the low end and mid-level game a priority over these changes to high-end content.

Hopefully in January we should see the much-anticipated task changes we heard about at the Fan Faire.

A few different board postings offer some excellent advice that effects every player, not just raiders. Three interesting threads, one on soloing and task changes, one on user interface suggestions, and another on grouping and LFG changes, all have excellent suggestions and advice that effects a large majority of Everquest players.

Two topics seem to dominate the conversations over on the Live forums. Class balance continues to raise its ugly head, usually wrapped in "SOE doesn't listen!" Most of the time, the complaint isn't really that SOE doesn't listen, but that SOE doesn't agree. People don't seem to want to hear it when their ideas are shot down. In the meantime, to squash the rumors of lack of communication, continue to watch the dozen or so postings a day from various SOE employees over at the dev tracker.

One other topic became so prolific recently that threads had to be consolidated into one huge thread. I speak of server mergers. I think merging servers should be an absolute last resort for SOE. It is the sort of change that cannot be undone, once done. It breaks up of our identity within the community and it gives the (perhaps inaccurate) impression that EQ is on a steady decline without a chance of going back up. Yes, numbers have been low, although anyone who tells you they have real data to support specific trends is most likely lying. Nothing tells us that we won't see the continued trend of new players joining in and old players returning when a shipment of new shiny expansion boxes hits the shelf sometime between March and May.

Ok, time for the scoop....

Recently, a large group of players from the Zek servers, Tallon, Vallon, Sullon, and Rallos, got together with representatives from SOE to discuss their merger. These servers, being evil red PVP servers, have a much different demographic and player base than the other pansy huggy blue servers. They also, apparently, have many fewer active players.

My vast network of spies tells me that SOE is indeed considering consolidating all four of these servers. While they have no definite plans yet, there are discussions within SOE to consolidate these four servers together. It is easy to consider this a reactionary move, however SOE apparently considered this merger well before EQ2's release and the meeting with the Zek players.

Those same spies did not reveal what the rule set would be for this combined server, so they were all immediately put to death.

Many will use this to feather their giant "EQ is Dead" mardi-gras hats. Yet, these same people will continue to pay their $12 a month and visit sites like this one and the EQLive boards. People love to hate.

The MMOG business tells us otherwise. Many other MMORPGs continue to not only run but bring out new expansions even with nearly 1/10th of the population of EQ. I expect that the server numbers need to drop dramatically over a long period of time before SOE decides to pull the plug. In the meantime, I see those who never enjoyed the game go off to greener pastures and those of us who do enjoy the game will form a new, tighter, and stronger community than ever before.

The day I don't hear anyone shouting "EQ is dead" is the day I really begin to worry.

Refunds, Mergers, and Flags

by Loral on December 15, 2004

This week we saw the largest update in some time. Wednesday's patch included pages and pages of changes covering everything from the long awaited backflag solutions to new hotzones and alternate advancement point refunds.

We discussed a these changes previously so I will only touch on a few things. The AA refunds, for the most part, seem to be very reasonable. SOE's goal was to make the point costs of Gates AAs fit better with the costs found in Omens of War. In a few days we should know how well this meets the desires of those it effects.

The backflagging solution should help guilds. While some guilds stayed at their current rate of power and delved deep into Anguish, other guilds began opening their doors wide open to new recruits since the release of EQ2 and WoW. These backflag changes help guilds continue to progress at the point they left off by using the 85/15 rule to bring in unflagged recruits. Because guilds won't have to backflag, they should be able to retain members rather than lose them. These backflag changes came at a good time for many raiding forces.

A few older zones had their experience modifiers increased including Shadeweaver's Thicket, Kurn's Tower, Unrest, Crystal Caverns, Solusek's Eye, Katta Castellum, Lower Guk, Nagafen's Lair, and Umbral Plains. These new hot zones should help get newer players into zones they might otherwise skip for newer content. I like the idea behind hotzones. Without too much effort, older zones become much more desirable than they once were.

Tacvi, the deepest and darkest corner of the Gates of Discord expansion, had a couple of nice changes for those powerful enough to reach it. It received a new zone in that doesn't require the weekly slaying of an ubermob to enter. This prevents guilds from simply waiting until another guild comes by and takes care of the large fellow. Tacvi also received a larger cache of new loot. I would expect this loot to be on par with the equipment we see coming from the depths of Anguish.

We saw our first wave of epic alterations this patch. These updates mainly handled the content required to receive the epic, but more than once we've heard that the epic effects themselves will be looked at. Expect to see some changes to epic 1.5s and 2.0s coming soon.

Both /autofire and /melody made it into this patch. Many archers and song singers rejoiced.

The two revamped zones, Mistmoore and Splitpaw made it to the Legends servers. I haven't yet heard what sort of content we can expect, but rumors speak to Elemental-level beasties worming their way through the infected paw of the Karanas. We shall wait and see. Expect these zones to make it to the live servers in about a month.

While we saw many good changes for the upper-end of the game, we didn't see that many that effected the larger group of players below level 65. Backflagging, epic 1.5 changes, and Tacvi matters to high-end raiders, but there wasn't much in this patch for the larger group of non-raiders and single-group hunters. At this critical stage, SOE must consider the low end and mid-level game a priority over these changes to high-end content.

Hopefully in January we should see the much-anticipated task changes we heard about at the Fan Faire.

A few different board postings offer some excellent advice that effects every player, not just raiders. Three interesting threads, one on soloing and task changes, one on user interface suggestions, and another on grouping and LFG changes, all have excellent suggestions and advice that effects a large majority of Everquest players.

Two topics seem to dominate the conversations over on the Live forums. Class balance continues to raise its ugly head, usually wrapped in "SOE doesn't listen!" Most of the time, the complaint isn't really that SOE doesn't listen, but that SOE doesn't agree. People don't seem to want to hear it when their ideas are shot down. In the meantime, to squash the rumors of lack of communication, continue to watch the dozen or so postings a day from various SOE employees over at the dev tracker.

One other topic became so prolific recently that threads had to be consolidated into one huge thread. I speak of server mergers. I think merging servers should be an absolute last resort for SOE. It is the sort of change that cannot be undone, once done. It breaks up of our identity within the community and it gives the (perhaps inaccurate) impression that EQ is on a steady decline without a chance of going back up. Yes, numbers have been low, although anyone who tells you they have real data to support specific trends is most likely lying. Nothing tells us that we won't see the continued trend of new players joining in and old players returning when a shipment of new shiny expansion boxes hits the shelf sometime between March and May.

Ok, time for the scoop....

Recently, a large group of players from the Zek servers, Tallon, Vallon, Sullon, and Rallos, got together with representatives from SOE to discuss their merger. These servers, being evil red PVP servers, have a much different demographic and player base than the other pansy huggy blue servers. They also, apparently, have many fewer active players.

My vast network of spies tells me that SOE is indeed considering consolidating all four of these servers. While they have no definite plans yet, there are discussions within SOE to consolidate these four servers together. It is easy to consider this a reactionary move, however SOE apparently considered this merger well before EQ2's release and the meeting with the Zek players.

Those same spies did not reveal what the rule set would be for this combined server, so they were all immediately put to death.

Many will use this to feather their giant "EQ is Dead" mardi-gras hats. Yet, these same people will continue to pay their $12 a month and visit sites like this one and the EQLive boards. People love to hate.

The MMOG business tells us otherwise. Many other MMORPGs continue to not only run but bring out new expansions even with nearly 1/10th of the population of EQ. I expect that the server numbers need to drop dramatically over a long period of time before SOE decides to pull the plug. In the meantime, I see those who never enjoyed the game go off to greener pastures and those of us who do enjoy the game will form a new, tighter, and stronger community than ever before.

The day I don't hear anyone shouting "EQ is dead" is the day I really begin to worry.

Loral Ciriclight
15 December 2004
loral@loralciriclight.com