Questions for the Community Summit

[LFG]

Originally Posted by Cochy

I'll start off with a rather obvious one.

What is the plan if any for the horible itemization of this game?

After reading the above question, I moved this discussion from Khalan's Community Summit thread. I did that because this exercise may be the most important thing we've done on this site since we opened. We have an amazing opportunity here, as a community, to request answers to our most important questions through the person who will attend the Summit on our behalf. So let's start now, and let's not blow this opportunity.

I also started this thread so it would be my thread. Based on the posting guidelines in effect on this site, I hereby declare this to be a serious discussion thread that will strictly remain on topic. Feel free to correct any inaccurate information posted by anyone in this thread, but do not divert the topic of this thread with remarks that aren't related to this topic, or I will edit or delete your post if needed.

I need to be able to edit and moderate this thread if required, because this is a special thread. The questions we decide to ask in this thread will be rolled up as the list of questions our attendee will present to the EQ2 team at the Summit.

What follows are my thoughts about how to ask the best possible questions and obtain the best answers, and will use the question asked by Cochy above as an example.

First, if you really want your question answered, don't include any direct or implied insults in your question. I'm not trying to criticize Cochy for the question he asked above, but it's an easy example so I picked it. I suggest phrasing Cochy's question like this instead:

Itemization may be the biggest complaint of EQ2's raiding community. One of the most common complaints is that easier raid encounters often drop the best items, while the most difficult encounters can drop items that raiders consider mediocre or sub par. These complaints seem to have been constant since DoF, KoS, and now EoF. So as an overall question, what plans do you have to solve this problem and improve raid itemization in EQ2 for the long term?

Assuming the correct person is asked this question, it will be easy for them to answer. This question does all of these things:

1. The question doesn't mince words, but isn't rude or antagonistic either. Always keep in mind how you react when approached by someone with an attitude. Are you more or less likely to provide a thoughtful, complete answer when you like the person who asks a question, or when you dislike them? Devs are people just like you and me. If you treat them with respect, as individuals, they will treat you in the same way, and will often reward you with a very complete answer and the best possible information. Also, important people don't want "suck up" or "kiss ass" questions either, but that shouldn't be a risk from anyone here.

2. The actual question in the last sentence is preceded by a statement defining the scope of the question, and provides sufficient context for the person to whom the question is asked.

3. The question cleanly identifies this problem as a matter of the highest importance and priority. We must prioritize our questions. After we finalize our list, we will vote on which questions are the most important to us as a community. Our attendee will explain our priority to the devs.

4. The question flows from general to specific information, then ends as a specific question. This is not just a stream of consciousness, it is a strategic question.

5. The question is open ended rather than closed, i.e., it seeks information rather than a yes or no answer. Be careful what you ask for, and don't ask your question in a way that can be answered by a simple yes or no, because that's what you will most likely to get.

6. The question is not too broad.

• First, you probably don't want to ask a question that would take more than one knowledgeable person to answer. Questions shouldn't mix unrelated things that are handled by different people. It should be obvious that you wouldn't ask a question that involved both combat mechanics and crafting, for example.

• Second, this particular question asks for an overall "big picture" answer, rather than a narrower slice of the same subject. Raid itemization itself is a very broad topic, so it's appropriate to start off with an "overall" question, and then lead into specific questions. Possible other questions related to raid itemization might be:

• My guild kills all or most T7 contested mobs on my server. In EoF we kill the Clockwork Menace, clear Freethinker's, clear Inner Sanctum, and can clear up to second floor in EH. No other guild on my server is able to kill half this content. Why is it then, that my guild has the fewest number of fabled armor set piece discoveries on my server, and why are guilds who are only able to kill the easier named in IS able to get the exact same gear?

• I've heard many players complain about the "points" system devs use to design gear and assign stats to it. Many of these players are convinced this method of gear design should be scrapped, because it hasn't seemed to make anyone happy despite being used since DoF. Do you have any plans to scrap the "points" system, if so, what are they, and if not, why not?

• Everytime my guild clears Freethinkers, Treyloth drops a berzerker helm. We've gotten four now, one each in our last four trips. This is a problem since we don't have any berzerkers in guild. Do you have any plans to better spread out which items drop, say by providing chests with choices the raid leader can pick, rather than things that nobody needs?

You get the point, and also see that you could ask 20 or more different questions about raid itemization alone. We won't have the opportunity to ask hundreds of questions. We will need to prioritize and keep our list to a reasonable length.

So please help maximize the opportunity provided by the upcoming Summit. I suggest that everyone interested make a reply post to this one with their top 2 or 3 most important issues.

In addition to questions, we need to provide examples to support the thesis of our questions. For example, if someone asks a question such as "why does the best raid loot drop from easier mobs, and worse loot drops from harder mobs?" What would you do if you asked someone that question, and then they disagreed with you? You wouldn't do much, except look dumb, unless you came prepared with supporting examples. So if anyone who asks a question doesn't provide supporting examples with their question, feel free to provide them in a reply post, quoting the post applicable to your examples.

DISCLAIMER: There is no guarantee your question will be answered. We will do our best. Thanks for understanding.

Thank you

[Lorak]

Originally Posted by LFG

Everytime my guild clears Freethinkers, Treyloth drops a berzerker helm. We've gotten four now, one each in our last four trips. This is a problem since we don't have any berzerkers in guild. Do you have any plans to better spread out which items drop, say by providing chests with choices the raid leader can pick, rather than things that nobody needs?

I don't really have a question of my own to add, but I would like to point out that this example you gave is one I would probably ask if I did. It would be nice if they figured out a way to keep these kinds of things from happening. Some bad luck I can understand, but having 6 berserker pieces, and having more pieces on alts/rotting than we have on mains gets very frustrating. It's hugely disappointing to clear a zone like FTH and come out with 3 pieces nobody can use, therefore making the entire trip mostly a waste.

And when this happens several times in a row, it is just plain disheartening.

[Stork/Atris]

Originally Posted by Lorak

I don't really have a question of my own to add, but I would like to point out that this example you gave is one I would probably ask if I did. It would be nice if they figured out a way to keep these kinds of things from happening. Some bad luck I can understand, but having 6 berserker pieces, and having more pieces on alts/rotting than we have on mains gets very frustrating. It's hugely disappointing to clear a zone like FTH and come out with 3 pieces nobody can use, therefore making the entire trip mostly a waste.

And when this happens several times in a row, it is just plain disheartening.

thats ok, our alts are getting wizzie hats now. and yes, we have 4 in the guild.


Here is some more food for thought, are instances worth running once people are down to 1 / 2 peices needed, i mean of course u will still run them, but i mean for fucks sake. 3/4 the loot off of instanced mobs are now Set peices, chances of a non set peice are now...... what in inner sanctum, 6/ 30? or thereabouts?

FTH is even worse, EH is well u are hoping for set gear, cos otherwise their shit sucks, till 3rd floor i hope =/

[Gregornous]

Question

What other means of character advancement are SOE considering other than level cap raises and AA points? We already have one hundred AA's to spend on our characters and raising the level cap essentially renders the gear we have quested and raided for obsolete, so I'm curious as to future plans in this area.

[Illuminator]

My question:

What future steps will SOE take when designing contested content, so that it naturally inhibits plat sellers from monopolizing the content and disrupting the player experience? Right now we seem to be relying on after-the-fact enforcement of the EULA, and every 10 plat sellers that get banned are replaced by 10 more in waiting, because the content seems to encourage it.

[Illuminator]

We are seeing it all the time that most players gain more defensive and offensive power from masters looted off of solo and heroic mobs, than from even the best fabled raid gear. So we ask, why are fabled Master Spells not being considered part of the fabled raid gear progression?

And to rephrase my prior question:

What future steps will SOE take when designing contested content, so that it naturally inhibits plat sellers from monopolizing the content and disrupting the player experience? Right now we seem to be relying on after-the-fact enforcement of the EULA, and every 10 plat sellers that get banned are replaced by 10 more in waiting, because there is minimal barrier to entry in the most profitable farming areas.

[Silver]

Q:Will there be future plans to have instance saves, or daily server resets rather than skipping out on resetting the servers every few days?

When competing for WW1st it's pretty fucked up that you get screwed by the server resetting they day after you enter a zone like EH while other guilds are able to spend 4 days in there without a reset essentially giving a 3 week advantage on the content. (By the way I in no way want to take away from the accomplishment secondawn made. It took hardwork in dedication and they deserve the congratulations on the WW1st of Wuoshi. It just pisses me off that for the past two weeks in a row we have tried to camp out in EH just like SD and Disso and our server has gotten reset the very next day both times.)

>>Also want to have the question about the same loot dropping asked.
In DoF my guild was the 1st or 2nd(by 1-2days if we were second) on the server to clear PPR and we cleared it weekly after that. We never once saw a single peice of coldforged gear the entire expansion. Three Princes on Oasis have been killed every week almost since maybe 1-2 mo after KoS was released and we're still finding server discoveries. Same for MO although it was killed a little later. FTH we've rotted like 2 bruiser helms 3 SK peices, 1-2 zerker peices, and an illusionist hat. We have all these in guild as well as some people with alts and we get so many that they're still rotting. Yet zero assassin gear has dropped, zero monk, pretty sure zero swashy and brig gear and the rest might have dropped 1 piece.

[Deson]

If my guess is right(and looking at some posts I wager it is) I know the person you are sending knows most of my concerns already and feel well represented. Still, my questions are, in no particular order:

General

• Character slots, what's the deal with these? As content gets added, the relatively low limit becomes more and more like a penalty for veteran players. Is there a concrete reason for the limit? If not, what is the philosophical and what does it take to sway the philosophy toward more slots?

• Is it feasable to allow reclassing of characters either in adventuring or trades? With the dual nature of characters, this is a very attractive feature for those who have invested alot in both sides that want a change but not to lose a massive investment in both character development and those afore mentioned limited slots.This question assumes the reset would be to level 1 adventuring or 9 tradeskill.

• Itemization- While primarily presented as a raid issue, it actually affects everyone. High quality loot is simply too easy to come by in t7- much of it masquerading as treasured. This limts item progression in tradeskills as what are normally trash drops outclass mastercrafted and also in normal grouping as Grizz's rewards and the Gown of Glory come from relatively easy quests/zones. Is this being looked into and should we expect some boosts/nerfs?

adventuring

• Are the AP lines set in stone now? Or, can you be convinced to relook at some options? As a necromancer specifically I have issues with both tree shape and one option in particular, Enhance: Summoning. A 3 second pet summon haste is at best a novelty for many summoners, and the placement of the "pet canni" option reduces it's usefulness for sub-50 necro's, the ostensible target. Many classses have issues of this nature and it would be nice have an official word on the matter.

• DoT poison, hemotoxin, is at current less valuable than it's counterpart, caustic, primarily because it overwrites itself resulting in wasted procs. Is there a plan to address this and issues like it?

Crafting

• First and foremost, what is the position of crafting in the world now? Crafters have taken some hard knocks and had many percieved slights and a statement of crafting's place in the world- either as hobby activity or viable alternative to adventuring- would be welcome to many.

• With the addition of the commision system, many new options became availible with loot tables and "no-drop" crafts, are there current plans to utilize this in the same way as it curently is for the KoS heritage quests?

• The commission mechanic allows alot of things requested by the TS community to be implemented. Furthering the previous question, is it possible we will see this system utilize the mail system for orders? Or, perhaps a bulletin board system where orders can be placed with materials/payment to be fufilled by a willing crafter? Ive lost count the amount of time I was told I was the only tradeskiller availible during my playtime and a system like this could help.

• It was said that a goal of the dev team was to get the crafting community to interact more with the adventure community but so far all that has been seen on that front was the proposed removal of instances. What are ideas floating around that can be commented on before they cause a panic on test and do any of them involve the crux of the matter- thet value of crafts in the world relative to drops.

• Is there going to be a consistency sweep in recipies? Right now, T1, T2 and t7 all work under a different model than t3-6, reflecting the different times they were implemented.

• Are there plans for actual crafting world content?Specific ideas are too broad to mention but many of these no doubt have been seen on the official boards to include crafting raids,quests and more events like the spires.

• Where the devil is Beghn?! He hasn't logged into the official boards since December 1st and given that he was the only person we ever saw that was soley dedicated to tradeskills, this is worrisome to many.

I've got tinkering and transmuting questions but, since they said those were getting a pass,I'll wait 'til either right before the summit or after I see the GU 31 notes.

[kyros]

some questions i came up with. not sure if these are the types of things you're looking for, but you're welcome to use any of my ideas / questions.

class discussion:
character definition is important to many players. in trying to further define classes, we have seen a lot of hallmark "abilities" being passed to other classes. for example: heal and revive spells for dirges and summoners, feign death for necromancers and shadowknights. some speculate that the class system - and thus class definition - would benefit from having fewer classes by merging existing ones. this could create stronger classes without having to spread themselves across so many game mechanics in order to be useful. some of the foundation of this may be extrapolated from the class breakdown on the character creation screen. is there any attention being paid to class definition? is there any consideration of class mergings in the works?

to further the class definition discussion:
it is already unavoidable that some classes perform better at soloing than others. it seems that there have been steps taken over the course of the game that have been made in an attempt to balance the power among classes to make them all able to solo at the same level, or be of the same value to groups and raids. why not, in favor of class definition and playstyle matching character abilities, unbalance - or at least strongly define - classes to allow them to each be strong and useful but have favored situations? this is much the way the system is now anyway, but would be in a way that is intended.

to add my own expansion on to what illuminator said:
why have spell upgrades at all? if they make soloers overpwered but raiders underpowered, then take them out and add a mechanic to buffing classes that increases the effectiveness of all spells or all combat arts by x%. spell upgrades have always been arcane and confusing to new players. i don't recall ever seeing any explanation to them or how they work with the tutorials on the isle (new or old), and it may be buried even if it is there. why not take them out and use other methods of enhancing the capabilities of the players?

drops:
nizara, city of the nayad, is a challenge (especially for those that aren't in raiding guilds or don't have the "perfect group"). in exchange for the challenge presented, one would expect relative frequency in loot. over 2 trips killing all but the last "named" in the zone, we got only 3 legendary items. for the difficulty of the zone, the number of "named" killed, and the extensive drop table, this seems quite low. many other heroic zones offer good legendary treasure - treasure, for the most part, that is no-trade - but the items seem to be rare. for the player who is not able to run these zones daily, it can be discouraging. is this sparsity of better loot intended? if not, are there plans to make it more available? if so, why is this preferred?

brigands:
brigands, especially raiding brigands, have been dealt a hard blow with the recent changes to amazing reflexes. after numerous posts discussing it, as well as players submitting feedback, the only response from a developer so far has been that it is "working fine" - explained as the ability procing every 4 hits. for many, this is answer is as disappointing as the explanation originally given for the change - that AoEs would no longer be lethal in one hit. brigands were also handed the ability to increase the proc percentage with achievement points. an increase that is still not giving reliable avoidance to anyone. the brigand communtiy has repeatedly asked for a reliable ability - even if it meant a long recast - because the current state of the skill is not helping. this leads to several questions:

if AoEs are no longer one-shotting players, and thus making AoE avoidance a somewhat outdated mechanic, why was it added, in a reliable form, to two other melee scouts (assassins and swashbucklers) at the same time as the brigand ability was made unreliable?

if amazing reflexes is meant to be a useful mechanic, but all of the player testing that has been done and all of the feedback submitted indicates that it is not, will it be fixed? player suggestions have ranged from a short duration, long recast buff to increasing the length of the proc'd ability to 7 seconds. what will be done to fix it?

[vochore]

question:

does soe have any plans to put in 2 grp t7 raid instances that can be run by smaller guilds that don't have the man power to ever attempt 4 grp raids.

this would allow even casual guilds the opportunity to get descent fabled gear.