aeeron

Changes i think need to happen with EQ2

Itemization - sorry but i fucking hate doing vaults of eternal sleep every single day cause the best mage secondary, or scout necklace comes from there. The gear is to rewarding from solo quests and heroic content, its to late now to change it but next expansion this seriously needs to be addressed.

Im not much of a lore person but i wish dietys actually meant something, other than getting that extra 36 intelligence from that soluesk ro god pet because it has the most intelligence. I wish they mattered, other than getting each cloak because you need something with a fear proc for pvp, dps/dmg proc for pve. And once you wasted all of that gods faction move to the next for god spells.

Combat, well its just boring as a mage I sit here all night pressing 1, 3,2,5,3,2 etc until mob dies, tab to the next and do the same. Theres no variation and its all to bland.

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Manic

this is a kick ass thread.(i haven't read the whole thing just a few pages) I agree that large scale changes are needed. Mergeing of some classes I agree with. What I would like to see is more class specific roles.
Wizard: Master of the elements earth, wind, fire & ice. (no need for a conj)

Warlock: Master of the undead, disease, & posion. (no need for a necro)

what I want to see is a if a dev would man up and join in this discussion.(in case somewere in this thread a dev has spoken up great)

my2cents

Illuminator

This is subject to opinion. IMO the best two, even three mage secondaries are the result of killing epic mobs.

Eventually I will have a thread detailing how I think Wizard and Conjuror should be merged. A few may flame, a few may express disapproval, but the post is still going to be made, everyone will eventually read it, and nobody is going to stop it. And this is the tiny little seed of doubt I plant in the minds of the naysayers and quietly it grows and grows until they end up saying exactly what I have been saying.

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Bow down before the one you serve. You're going to get what you deserve.

Wormy

Performing class consolidation to solve itemization and character customization issues is like getting a sex change to make the man-boobs you’ve developed look more natural. Yeah, it may work, but is cutting really where you want to start? I’d suggest that itemization problems can be solved by changing the nature of items. A solution could also lead to greater character customization.

If itemization is taking time for the developers then they have not built the correct tools. EQII would benefit from a ROG (Random Object Generator) similar to that used by DAoC. In DAoC some items are not ROG generated, i.e. they have fixed stats and names similar to items found in EQ or EQII. Other items are built from the ground up by an algorithm which, behind the scenes, uses point systems and a feature compatibility matrix to control what goes into the item. While the DAoC ROG isn't perfect, the idea has a lot going for it.

Instead of having to spend a great deal of time designing new items for each class, the Devs could spend time improving the ROGs intelligence. Instances could have loot customized for the group entering the instance.

I’ve always felt that quest reward armor is the wrong way to go. Instead, why not give no-trade crafting specials (dweomers) that characters can combine with existing items to make new and perhaps unique combinations? Player-crafted armor could even have more slots to hold dweomers than dropped items. Some dweomers could include a change to the item graphic, allowing for armor "sets" with a common look.

The result of such a system would be a change to the way Devs create items. No longer will they have to shortcut and make all healer armor leather due to a time constraint. Instead, the players would decide how and where to use the "+1% chance to heal crit" dweomer.

Kookynotes

I'm sorry but merging classes is just a nail in the coffin for too many people. SWG's NGE thing was a nightmare, some of us have played the same toon(s) since Nov,9th, 04' and to merge their class would be like killing off their toon. I know in reality it may not be the case if done right. Bottom line is people will feel like after all their effort something has been taken away from them, thus ending in more loss of subs.

If we are gonna think big, we should really be thinking about repopulating the servers. I would suggest creating the next adventure pack as a PvP adventure pack. Make a zone for GvG battles and other typical PvP encounters not to mention place for our Guild halls that we still haven't got yet. If that goes well, merge pvp with pve servers so we can get the best of both worlds. Or even introduce pvp "flaggin" in current pve servers to see how that goes. Thats just one fundamental change I would suggest.

As far as classes go variety is the spice of life, so if merging current classes is what we are going to do they will need to add a few more to appeal to more players.

NGE is just a scary thing for a lot of us. SOE boned us all 1x already, they need to be careful if they do it 2x it will be over for them as a gaming propriotor. I know theres already a percentage of gamers that won't play eq2 because of SWG, so we must choose carefully of what we ask for.

Illuminator

It's a nail in the coffin if you give it zero thought whatsoever.

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Bow down before the one you serve. You're going to get what you deserve.

Sheya

I think nothing will change in regard to classes, nor to spells, save maybe for a buff consolidation of some sort. The risk in pissing off even a tiny portion of the playerbase is too big and EQ2 doesn't have the numbers to both afford losses in subs numbers and continue development in a substantial and consistent way.

People routinely comes back to this game and leaves 1-2 or 3 months later at best, you can read this everywhere this game is discussed. Whether or not this is a significant portion of the playerbase (and I think it is) is matter of discussion, but it seems that EQ2 lacks for many some staying power, retention ability so to say.

The last expansion was for a part of the playerbase quite disappointing, heck even some fanbois on the official forum bended over and admitted that RoK was lacking. After EoF, all I wanted and all those playing with me wanted was "more of the same" and we didn't get it. Possibly this was true for others too, but I don't know.

As a matter of fact my sub is running out in 4 days and won't be renewed until I'll hear that substantial changes are done to the combat system and to various other game mechanics (encounters, body pulling, etc.)
My friends are following me in canceling, for the same reasons or for plain RoK-burnout, we are not many, but it's 8 to 12 subs less on the table.

I'm not happy about doing it, because Norrath is my favourite fantasy world since 1999-2000 and others just don't compare (Azeroth) or fail to deliver. I wish I'll see an EQ3 sometimes in the future.

Caswydian

I think this has a lot more to do with the number of other games available to players. We're well past the days of there only being one or two major MMOs active at one time, and many players will jump around to different games to try them out.

I do not think it is realistic for any game to expect all their players to play that game almost exclusively for years on end. Rather players will rotate through various games as new content becomes available, and then move on once they've taken their fill. This will likely require MMO companies to adapt - SOE is in a good position with their station pass, and other companies are moving towards the portfolio approach, too.

3devious

Beautiful.

Quite honestly, I don't trust Sony to implement a class consolidation properly. I can just see the inquisitor getting its suck on my templar. (Actually when it comes to my fellow clerics, I don't hate, I appreciate. I just don't want to be like them, hence why I didn't roll one.)

Seriously, they would need to figure out why people are playing inquisitors and templars and create something that both groups would want to play, but more than likely I'd get a weak damaging debuffer who can't heal shit that looks like a bondage reject because some asshole only saw fit to give healers leather. (Honestly, fuck you to the person who implemented that.)

Maybe an ability based character would be the way to go. They want to make a completely item based game for the Agency. The opposite approach could be interesting. We need to come up with a simple way to do it, because putting it in abilities can be just as complicated to adjudicate as itemization.

Illuminator

Completely item based games lead to all the problems we have here.

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Bow down before the one you serve. You're going to get what you deserve.