EverQuest Next: Truly dynamic world?

[VampireBill]

So if you haven't seen yet, a metric sh**-ton of info was released on EverQuest Next today. The new cartoony art style has me crying tears of disappointment from my tender memories of the golden days of EQ1 (and to some extent, from EQ2), but there *are* some pretty stunning concepts that WoD could obviously benefit from, though I wonder if CCP could possibly put them in...

1. Voxel-based world: everything can *possibly* be destructible (obviously there will have to be limits on areas where players can actually do this).

2. Procedurally-generated subterranean environments: you can keep digging deeper and deeper into the planet to discover new areas and environments.

3. Dynamic AI: (now this is one that has me excited) The mobs are going to act (and react) based upon how the concept of that mob should... Goodbye static spawn camps, hello enemies adapting, -patrolling, withdrawing, reinforcing depending on what they're being met with.


4. "Rallying Cries": Their version of public quests. How did the Barbarian city of Halas get built? Not just by adventurers "like" you, but adventurers possibly *including* you. These public quests have *permanent* effects on the world. No more feeling of "Oh, yeah, I'm such an amazing once-in-a-lifetime hero.... more like hero of this particular scripted moment, now watch everything respawn back to as it was..."

[Radical21]

I don't know GW2 made such a hype with promises along a similar way  and where did it end up?

[Valamyr]

I'll have to take a look at all that. EQN clearly scrapped much of its development cycle to try to include more sandbox elements.. but its a bit hard to imagine an Everquest-branded title as a groundbreaking novelty. Could be wrong; time will tell.

[Radical21]

I'll have to take a look at all that. EQN clearly scrapped much of its development cycle to try to include more sandbox elements.. but its a bit hard to imagine an Everquest-branded title as a groundbreaking novelty. Could be wrong; time will tell.

My guess is that you end up with an EQ version that has next gen UE4 style graphics but with heavy gameplay restrictions on where you can dig, where you can take the 'build city quests' and where you can destroy buildings and so on, so gameplay-wise there will be nothing really new under the sun, just a few more tech gimicks.

And I'm not saying any of the things EQN promises are impossible, its just that it is improbable that Sony will deliver a game that risks introducing freedom or anarchy in any form, its just not their style, even Planetside 2 which is supposedly a PvP Sandbox FPS MMO has very hard restrictions to ensure that no one can really influence the settings in any major way so you can imagine how unlikely it would be that they Pick up a mainstream PvE title and give players freedom to build or destroy.

[Nigama]

Looks like it is going in the right direction.  Could keep going instead of stopping, tho, there's more area to expand in this direction.


Nigama

[VampireBill]

I'm excited by some of the ideas, but then, it's easy to be excited by ideas. The actual execution, on the other hand........ At the least it should/could help get MMO developers thinking in ways beyond the WoW-clone model again. Watching mobs respawn in the same camps standing around waiting to be killed over and over (especially after you supposedly destroyed their camp in some epic quest) is a real immersion-killer.

[Radical21]

I just hope we get over this phase where people think Multiplayer = F2P MMO.

Edit: Although maybe I misjudged SOE because they did make Player Studio that allows users to upload and sell custom-made game assets in some of their games which shows that they are looking to expand their creativity and become a sort of moderated Mine-craft/Second Life where they don't have to pay as much for creating content while reaping a healthy % of the sale of user-generated content that is up to par.

[phonixor]

build your own castle.... or underground fortress... that sounds kinda nice
till anybody comes along with any kind of attack and with a gps that says the shortest route is straight through your castle....

also i love flexible class systems!
i do hope they dont screw it up....
- necro needs multiple permanent pets!
- rogue needs permanent cloak at lvl 1!
- coercers need a permantent charm at lvl 1!
none of that 30 seconds crap... that is just for extra's and dots (and imbah buffs)!
this should not change if you mix classes!!!

...
still i just love gamemechanics! and wikis!
the numbers of builds for classes of games i will never play keeps growing :P

[Valamyr]

EQN will probably be on my 'to try' list, and I'm curious about some of the things its promising but not frothing at the mouth yet.

ESO has me much more excited, both for the IP and clear attempt to emulate the best of DaoC, down to hiring some of the brightest minds they had on staff. It has to the potential to be a real MMO done amazingly well with just the right amount of innovation. I've played in a couple beta weekends and I'm really impressed by the potential. Bonus points for going with a proper sub model without any cash shop, and hey, it'll have Vampires and Werewolves ;)

[Rick Gentle]

How in hax did you get into the beta for The Elder Scrolls Online?? My friend and I signed up for it as soon as it was available!

[Valamyr]

I usually get into betas by writing professional-looking applications that flaunt my experience with so many other betas before, involvement in modding communities and such.

But in this case, there was no way to even submit an application detailing why I'd be a good candidate, I just got lucky. Its a luck-of-the-draw beta, which is a pretty poor selection system, but it saves you having to pay a guy to read 150,000 applications.

[_username]

Pretty slick.  Gaz and I have been talking about getting a second TV and two PS4s just for ESO pwnage.

[VampireBill]

Bonus points for going with a proper sub model without any cash shop, and hey, it'll have Vampires and Werewolves ;)

It's been confirmed now that there *will* be a cash-shop.  =\
http://esohub.de/news/154-eso-interview-abomodell-itemshop-entwicklung%5B1%5D

[Valamyr]

Yeah I saw. Very disappointed.

Trying to sell boxes, expansions, charge a sub and STILL do cash shop is a ridiculous amount of greed.

They'll milk it for a year and then go F2P I guess. Unless they're wildly successful, that model isn't sustainable anymore.

[Radical21]

Yeah I saw. Very disappointed.

Trying to sell boxes, expansions, charge a sub and STILL do cash shop is a ridiculous amount of greed.

They'll milk it for a year and then go F2P I guess. Unless they're wildly successful, that model isn't sustainable anymore.

Are you really that surprised?
This is Elder scrolls, one of the most commercialized game series out there and since a large % of its player base are twinks who are suckers for shiny item dressing over a minimal hero story (that fails to live up to its full potenial) I bet many of them were the player type that asks and begs for a cash-shop on the forums and readily fuels the developer's greed.

Paying for XP boosts is funniest thing of course, because instead of optimizing XP gain for everyone all the developer does is slow down the XP gain for whomever doesn't cough up the $, would players ever look at it that way? of course not.

P.S. I think of doing an essay on MMO Roleplaying and its common pitfalls.(in games where emergent role-playing is non-existent or even frowned upon.)