aduros

• Lack of practical advancement options 70-80
• Abysmal heroic xp
• Rare Named dropping wood
• Heroic Named dropping no loot at all (launch)
• Overbuffed mobs (use possess on an RoK mob, and see what type of buffs they're rolling with)
• Horrible raid progression
• Avatars aren't finished
• Epics aren't finished
• 40 new AAs, with out bothering to rebalance the existing trees to compensate
• ROOTED NAMED
• Broken arrow mechanics
• Broken melee hit% on orange con epics
• Broken procs
• Unbalanced Itemization
• Underpowered raid loot
• Small and simplistic raid zones (VP excluded)
• 1 shotted tanks (RNG != fun)

Thats just off the top of my head.

They were given 10+ months to design a quality expansion. Instead what we received was an unfinished product, that easily needed another 6+ months of development time. That right there tells me something is wrong internally.

__________________

Caswydian

Is the only combat mechanic issue you are referring to the arrow mechanic? If so, let's put it in perspective - it is an issue that primarily impacts one class, and is caused by a mechanic not used anywhere else in the game. Even then, the impact itself only degrades performance a bit, so it doesn't break the class or ability. Should it be fixed - absolutely. Is it going to be a high priority fix - probably not.

The problem is, we have no idea how many bugs are fixed before launch, we only see the ones that aren't.

aduros

What about broken melee hit%? That affects damn near everyone. And your wrong it does break the class. You've just gimped the primary source of dps, for a class that only does dps.

You do if you beta tested. Hmm I wonder why they kept the NDA up for so long...

__________________

keldo

You could make a list just as long for EoF (or any expansion), don't pretend like you can't.

aduros

List away. We'll compare and contrast notes.

Theres always problems (for example EoF had huge spell/charm lag), but on the scale of RoK when given almost a year to develop? No excuse for that, except...Internal issues.

__________________

Caswydian

RoK could use an heroic instance geared towards level 70-75, but beyond that, advancement is fine. There's a good number of instances, plus tons of solo and small group content available. What specific things would you change about the advancement paths?

Heroic XP was too low early on, but has been adjusted and seems quite acceptable to me. How quickly do you really want people to level?

For much of the game, this was the norm. I wouldn't call this a bug by any means, but rather a design decision you dislike. Were you around when raid mobs still dropped wood?

This issue has been largely fixed. There may be individual instances of it happening, or you may be finding encounters that intentionally have no loot table because they're only there as quest updates.

What exactly is the problem with this? So far, people seem to be making their way through the content without huge amounts of difficulty, and those encounters which are tricky are because of scripting or mob abilities.

Are you referring to the mechanics of the raid tiers, or just some subjective, fuzzy idea of raid progression?

Fine, but raid content is something that's been introduced over the course of the expansion. For example, back in the T5 days many of the raid zones were not introduced until far later in the game.

I agree with you on this one. Epics should have been in from launch.

And why is this needed? What specific problems is this causing?

One encounter that I know of.

This pre-dates RoK, and is something the devs are aware of and planning on correcting.

Could you give specifics on this one? How are things broken, exactly?
Procs in general, or specific procs on certain items? Generally, if an item is bugged, the devs will fix it. This has been an ongoing issue since procs began to proliferate.

Itemization does need some work for certain classes.

Underpowered in what way? Is raid loot insufficient to allow people to progress through the raid content, or is it simply not uber enough? Could you give specific examples of what needs to be changed and why?

Would you prefer the devs to consolidate two or three raid zones to give a smaller number of larger raid zones? Really, is the amount of raid content available in RoK less than was available in KoS at launch?

Randomness has always been a factor in raiding. It would be nice if it wasn't, but in the mean time, use your skills to compensate, like having a second MT group ready to pick up if the MT dies.

Overall, it looks like we're seeing a few balance issues, a couple of legitimate bugs and some disagreement over design philosophy. This is hardly something that will require 6 months to fix, and none of these issues are game-breaking, nor should they have delayed the launch of the game.

keldo

- 2 entirely new tradeskill mini professions each with massive balancing issues. (400 hp augs, melee danaged added to each attack, mem wipe, etc)
- 50 new AA points in Trees with obvious cookie cutter builds being the only option, not to mention completely unbalanced when comparing to other classes.
- No real meaningful loot/lore/anything from Kaladim
- No real meaningful loot/lore/anything from New Tunaria (and split teired)
- No real meaningful loot/lore/anything from MM Catacombs
- A challenging dungeon in Mistmoore Castle that was too difficult for most casual groups, yet offered no loot or quests to hardcore players until far after launch.
- Legendary from EoF replacing fabled from KoS just like RoK - but no level cap raise so it makes even less sense.
- No progression in raid drops (Clockwork Menace vs 1st edition Emerald Halls loot)
- Subclass specific loot dropping and rotting
- Delevel lag issue cockblocking Mayong and EH
- A full 70%? of the expansion wasted on lower level content that was mostly used for alts
- Completely inexistant raid progression
- Copy Paste raid mobs with few, if any, tweaks (Joust + Adds)
- Artificial cockblocks (wolfsbane) and backward (Wuoshi -> Mayong)
- AA xp rate going from difficult to extremely easy in the span of a month
- Problems with the entire Deity system especially in regards to Avatar killing
- Contested Avatars and PPH ranging from broken/easy to broken/impossible

.. I could go on, the list is even bigger for KoS and DoF.

edit: Really it sounds like you might be new to top end raiding or hardcore playstyle in general. I don't know if that is true about you or not, but this issue is not new, and it is true of every MMO expansion I can think of.

Even the original Kunark, the holy grail of EQ1 uberness, had terrible issues at launch which continued through the entire expansion. Even Luclin, the one most people remember most fondly of all, had tons of issues at launch. These expansions never are and never will be perfect and complete at launch.

aduros

Thats bullshit right there. Over-reliance on the RNG to challenge players, is the sign of an uncreative and incompetent designer. Theres alot of thing you can do to make an encounter engaging, without taking the quick(lazy) and easy path. I refuse to endorse it, and simply say "oh well it happens".

Overall, your letting your enormous SoE bias blind you. So to make this simple, and prevent this from becoming a drawn out 40 page SoE fanboi crusade I'll break it down for you.

• EoF was developed for 10+ months and widely considered a a success.

• RoK was developed for 10+ months, it's widely considered a failure. It's content pales in comparison to what was offered in EoF. Failure.
• It was given an enourmous amount of time, yet was unable to deliver on many fronts. Failure.
• Many EQ2 players consider it's production a failure.
• Devs consider it's production a failure.
• SoE management considers it's production a failure.
• RoK was a failure.

To connect back to the OP, and the original purpose of this thread: There was definitely something going on in those 10+ months that was cock-blocking progress. Whether it was incompetent management, lack of resources, or just plain laziness, I don't know. But what I do know, is that there is a problem with SoE internally, and RoK is proof of that.

As to your other points, I have no desire in taking the time to respond to all that. Maybe, just maybe if you weren't such a rabid fanboi in every single one of your post on EQ2flames, I would take the time to start an intelligent debate. But it's clear at this point, nothing intelligent would come from a debate with you.

__________________

keldo

uhh I just read my post edit and realized I said Luclin was something we remembered most fondly of all, and I ment Velious, before anyone starts talking (rightly so) how terrible Luclin was.

Caswydian

In that case, I challenge you to find a competent and creative developer in any MMO, since some level of randomness - be it damage ranges on weapons, percentage chances to hit or to resist, or many other elements of chance are present in virtually every game out there.

Where on earth are you getting the idea that RoK is generally seen as a failure, both inside and outside SOE?

Everquest II: Rise of Kunark PC Review Index, Everquest II: Rise of Kunark Reviews
IGN: EverQuest II: Rise of Kunark Review
EverQuest II Rise of Kunark Review - PC


You seem to be letting your anti-SOE bias get in the way of making any objective assessment of the situation.

Please. This tired excuse?