Dev Chat Feb 28 2008
This Dev Chat took place in the #eq2 channel on irc.allakhazam.com on Thursday, Feb. 28th, roughly from 4:30pm to 5:45pm, Pacific time. It is estimated that 197 (at peak) players were present, in addition to the 5 site admins, 3 Zam staffers and 10 SOE devs.
Very little editing has been done to this log. Mostly to correct a few obvious typos or auto-format trash.
Important terms, names and concepts have been linked into the Wikibase.
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Welcome
Tamat: Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to our latest EverQuest II IRC Developer Chat hosted right here at Allakhazam. I'm your host Andrew "Tamat" Beegle and joining me from Allakhazam we have Amy "Calthine" Lanam, Helen "Raven" Banks, Christie "Kiara" Renzetti, Maggie "AutumnKiss" Olsen and Bill "Bludwyng" Smith.
- kiara waves!
- doomcookieSOE waves
- Tamat takes a bite of pie!
Introductions
Lyndro: Hi everyone, my name is Akil "Lyndro" Hooper. I'm lead game designer on EverQuest II.
Tamat: Allow me to first introduce Aaron "Gnobrin" Bisnett. We found out this morning that he's a chat-o-holic!
Lyndro: No I want to be first!
Tamat: No!
- Sit down!
kiara: too late Lyndro wins!
Archonix: Hola, I'm Chris "Archonix" Junior. Items/Mechanics Designer for EverQuest II and general troublemaker.
- kiara gives Lyndro the gold star
Aeralik: Hello folks, I am Chris "Aeralik" Kozak, mechanics designer/coder
Rothgar: Hiya, I'm Greg "Rothgar" Spence. Programmer
Froech: Howdy, folks :) I'm Bruce Ferguson, the Senior Producer for EverQuest II.
Ilucide: Herro. I'm Noel "Ilucide" Walling. That's one 'L'. Seriously, I mean it! I'm a design supervisor on the EQ2 team.
Gnobrin: I am Aaron "Gnobrin" Bisnett, Community Representative for EQII.
doomcookieSOE: I'm Lindsay Morgan "doomcookie" Lockhart. I'm a content designer on the EQ2 team.
kiara: Ilucide will personally hunt you down if you spell it wrong * nod *
Tamat: I actually had funny introductions for everyone. But someone can't raise their hand!
Kirstie: Hey, I'm Jen "Kirstie" Gerull. Associate Producer on EQII
Jindrack: Heya, I'm Jeremy "Jindrack" Gess and I'm a design supervisor like Ilucide!
Vhalen: I am Tony "Vhalen" Garcia. I have been here too long to recall my title
Domino: I'm Emily "Domino" Taylor, tradeskill designer, and one of the newbies on the team!
Rothgar: And cookie-maker extraordinaire
kiara: vhalen = Lore God Extraordinaire!
- Bludwyng boggles at Vhalen
Lyndro: Vhalen typed that wrong. His title is actually too long to recall. Especially since we added "Keeper of the seal and protector if the Nine Rings of Causality" to it
HaohmaruEQ: Yar! I'm Tim "Haohmaru" Heydelaar - I head up the environment team and would school any of you at Street Fighter! 10yrs ago anyway...
BruinenTheInsane: I am Bill Yeatts "BruinentheInsane" I like chocolate doughnettes, the waxy kind.
Domino: Haohmaru is the one I constantly pester for all the cool furnitures :)
Tamat: Let the questions begin!
SOE-Cronyn: I'm Paul Molina, content designer on the EQ2 team. I *think* I am the newest of the new, too. LOL
The Questions and Answers
Most chatter from here on will be edited out, keeping only the actual questions and the answers. Additionally, a few minor typos have been corrected (a mob name here and there) and smart-quotes have been fixed to render correctly. -Bludwyng
Dragowulf asks: With the announcement of RoK we were told we were going to get a really cool new map system, it was also shown in fan faire 2007. When an update went live that made minimaps available for ui modders to mod, the devs had stated it wasn't the "new" map system they were talking about. My question is, how is the progress with this and when should we be seeing this??? Thanks
- Lyndro: The map system is still well under way. While we don't have a release date set for it yet, it is still something that is in our production pipleline. When we get it in a state that is closer to release we'll probably have a better idea when it'll go live.
Many people have asked about guild halls - what can you tell us please? Is there an ETA or any other juicy info?
- Lyndro: The art for guildhalls is nearing completion from our soga studio, and we are starting to iron out the laundry list of features. Right now we can't give you any specific dates on when to expect them, but you can expect them. (And they look awesome... Really)
- Jindrack: SOGA did a fantastic job on them, they are really impressive!
Tenamdar asks: Regarding tradeskills, please tell us about any efforts to remove the "grind" feeling. While it's great to have these rewards for grinding, it's not on par with adventuring in terms of distracting you from the fact that you're gaining XP. I think this is important so I was hoping you'd touch upon that.
- Domino: There have been a number of tradeskill quests added in already, mostly given out by the Grandmasters in the city tradeskill faction areas so far. I plan to continue adding more quests for tradeskillers as time permits, and there should be some to look forward to sometime in the next couple of game updates. :)
Lazaretto asks: Regarding VP - Is Druushk working as intended and did you mean to put the hardest mobs in the zone on the first floor? Many people consider the Druushk fight in its current form to be almost impossible without exploited mythical weapons.
What are your plans for this encounter specifically and for later encounters in the zone. Many raiders are frustrated with what they consider broken raid design
- Lyndro: Druusk is a little harder than he was intended, and the fight has some "unfun" elements ffffffffffffffor sure (*cough*). That being said, it was intentional that Druushk and Nexona serve as gatekeepers for the epics. We've got some balance changes coming to Druushk that should make the fight a little more accessible.
Beele: Do the devs see it more important to keep ranger DPS down and give them more group/raid utility, or will there be an ammo fix so that in light of having very little utility Rangers can be mostly T1 DPS again?
- Aeralik: I am currently looking into some of the ranger issues. The arrows will be made level 70 min level with a level 80 use level. Overall they will get a slight rise to dps from combat arts and I added a bit of utility to them as well.
- Aeralik: so stayed tuned for gu44 there should be some nice changes for you guys :)
Lucutious of Najena: In the original EverQuest, we had dungeons like Najena, Kedge Keep, as well as others that I'm forgetting at this moment. Are there any plans to bring the rest of those old dungeons back, specifically any underwater one like Kedge?
- Jindrack: We will be exploring the ancient dungeons sometime in the foreseeable future. These are dungeons we all know and love so we definitely want to see what's happened to them 500 years in the future.
Spindel asks: Is there going to be any more done with the Qeynos / Freeport war, and will we ever see Lucan or Antonia in game like how Firionia Vie was in the live events in EQ1?
- Lyndro: We have not forgotten about our cities. Norrath is place with lots of stories to tell, and one day we will get around to telling them all. Lots of people have stories that they want developed (Including people internally), so you'll have to wait and see what comes next.
Maverick: The paladin forums are awash with complaints about the 'perceived' design flaws in the paladin epic, and the disparity between it and the other fighter epics. The response to this has been locking of topic that are critical in nature. Do the devs ever plan to actually address this concern held by many of the class?
- Lyndro: We are looking at all of the epics as a whole. We don't plan on doing spot checks (Aside from bug fixes) with hotfixes or the regular game updates. In an upcoming update we plan on evaluating all the epics (Feedback and all) and making changes to them all at once. Some may change, some may not, some may get better, some may not. We don't have an ETA now, but EQ II is a live game and epics are high profile. We want to do them justice.
sabershadowkat: Rothgar created the "What bugs you?" thread and indicated the responses would becalculated, divided by area, and looked at seriously by the developers... Are the GU feedback threads looked at in a similar way by the developers, with the idea of calculating the responses and making the modifications as needed?
- Gnobrin: Player feedback is always reviewed, if not by the community staff such as myself, then by the developers themselves. Many of the comments are then replied to within the given threads regarding those issues, so the feedback thread remains purely feedback.
Milaga asks: EQ1 Kunark introduced not only Iksar but Iksar skeletons. Iksar Skeletons made it into ROK, but there are no player illusions for them. Are there any plans for players to have Iksar, Froglok or Ratonga skeletal models based on their race?
- Froech: We are looking into it, along with a bunch of other "skeletal" changes that we've been promising for a while. Unfortunately, it's pretty complicated stuff that affects every piece of clothing in the game, so it isn't something we're able to rush. But we're looking at it.
- Froech: Long winded way of saying "maybe", I guess.
- Froech: :)
- Lyndro: Adding to the skeleton question: As for spooky undead type skeletons. These are the types of things that end up fitting in as we have time. I don't know that we'll ever give you illusions for them (We may or we may not), but the models will probably appear eventually).
Motu: Hello, In the current form the Monk mythical is great, but after the incoming nerf it is going to loose what we thought was so great. Why was strikethough changed, is there any way for us to change your mind? Will other parts of the weapon be improved?
- Lyndro: Ok I know lots of people want to know specifics about their epics. However there are lots of general questions that need to be answered, covering questions issues with 24 epic weapons would quickly rule the chat.
- Lyndro: That being said nothing is ever set in stone... That is part of the joy of working on a MMO.
Mithrandyr asks: Could you address the Everling story and where it was left at the end of Nek3? Are we going to see more about Ethernere and the divided soul of Rikantus Everling?
- Vhalen: He released the key to destiny
- Vhalen: Everling's story has always been touching upon various elements of each expansion. There are more revelations to come, revelations about Everling and the secrets he keeps. Also, it may not be bound to Nektropos Castle or an expansion. He has lots to tell you. Lord Rikantus Everling is on the hunt.
- Vhalen: The family trade may be returning to Norrath.
SpyderBite: What is the chance that you'll re-introduce the long forgotten and well enjoyed Thief to the game? At least on the PvP servers.Even on the PvE servers I can see that it would be a class or profession or racial trait that would be enjoyed as it has in past MMO's.
- Lyndro: Add a new class? You get my canned response (With an additional caveat now): We have 24 classes. I don't see the need for another. However we'll consider adding a new class when all 24 classes are well balanced and have unique roles. . .And we can add a 25 th epic quest (That is the new caveat).
- Lyndro: And they were rogues in EQ 1, not thieves... They are on the list right after Beastlords. ;)
- Froech: and balance the 25th class with the other 24....
Felishanna: In relation to the crafter cloaks - when Domino has recovered from all that work, are crafters going to see more of these kinds of quests in the near or distant future?
- Domino: Questing is fun, and I definitely hope to continue adding more quests for tradeskillers in addition to the ones that have already gone in. There will be some more quests from the grandmasters coming up this year, including one for lower (probably around level 50-ish) players to get a different style crafting cloak! Quests as long and complex as the tradeskill epic do take a lot of time however, so there probably won't be anything on quite tha (response chopped off)
- Domino: Quests as long and complex as the tradeskill epic do take a lot of time however, so there probably won't be anything on quite that scale until my urgent to-do list is cleared off a bit more!
- Lyndro: There were some issues with raids that needed to be addressed, and we wanted to get to them before people started getting their epics (The issue with the Druushk adds was a bug fix, and it had a negative effect, but the answer on Druushk balance changes earlier should cover some of that).
- Lyndro: There are a couple stationary mobs in VP that just don't play right, those will be changed soon. Aside from that I'd expect we'll just work on fixing bugs on what is there if they arise.
- Tamat takes another bite of pie
- Gnobrin wonders just how much pie Tamat's got over there...
- Domino: what could be better!
- Domino summons a few dozen
- Gnobrin: Free food?! Yes!
- Tamat wants pie.....
Alondnar: This is specifically for Vhalen, what ever happened with the Rune of Sunder lore in Nek 3, it seemed to just dead end.
- Vhalen: The Rune of Sunder was just a key to understanding one of the greatest mysteries of the universe. What it unlocks can be found in the world. I can promise you that you will know more.
Mr-Furious: Wondering if the Opal Darkbriar world story ends with the assassin epic or whether the devs plan on continuing the story line?
- Jindrack: Opal got herself into a lot of trouble when she went against the Overlord and swiped Soulfire. Nothing is certain in Norrath, but a corpse is pretty hard evidence to refute. She was quite the schemer, though, wasn't she? The question next would be, who will Lucan appoint to be the next Foci? Hmmm...
- Tamat laughs
- doomcookie waggles her eyebrows.
- Gnobrin: Mmmm, Lucan lore.
- Jindrack: And Doomcookie isn't eligible for the position.
- doomcookie sulks.
Daevara: My question is for Rothgar - I know from reading the forums that there are multiple issues for folks running the GeForce 8800 series video cards of late. Has there been any progress on getting these issues worked out?
- Rothgar: Our compatibility lab has been looking into the problems related to Vista and the 8800 series video cards and I was told yesterday that we've been able to repro(duce) some of those problems. The dev team should be receiving hardware soon that will allow us to begin looking for a fix. As soon as we've found something, we will let everyone know.
Maladict asks: Is there any connection between The Weave and the origin of the Shadowed Men? Or is it coincidence that they name their outposts with Druzaic rune names?
- Vhalen: I cannot elaborate if there is an association between the two, but I will tell you that the Druzaic runes are known and used by many planar entities. There are more than a few civilizations in Norrath that show traces of them.
- Vhalen: In the case of the shadowed men, whoever they really are, the runes are a critical component to their survival.
Tenani asks: Could the devs make it where pets show up in the group window to other players in the pet owners group?
- Lyndro: That is a really good idea. We have a wishlist of "stuff", I wouldn't mind seeing something like that put into our internal wishlist (It is a long list right now, so I can't say when it'll come... if ever). It is a good idea though.
- Rothgar: In regards to the pet info question about the group window... We have an awesome UI modding community. I encourage people to take a look at some of the great UI's out there to see if any of them meet your needs.
Runaf: Are there any scheduled changes planned for the swashbuckler VP armor set bonuses and epic effects, and if so is there any sort of timeline scheduled?
- Archonix: We're currently (evaluating) the set bonus changes for all of the Kunark raid armor sets (Swashbucklers VP set included). No details as of yet, but I'm hoping they'll be out on the test server sooner rather then later.
- Archonix: oops, add an evaluating up there, and it makes more sense :)
- Domino is a set bonus! Collect 5 halflings, get extra pie
speedycerv: Is anyone considering a revamp of the Heroic opportunity system?
- Gnobrin is all by himself, since all the other gnomes were eaten!
- Ilucide: We're considering reworking how the Heroic opportunity system fits in with gameplay. It's definitely on our list of things we'd like to address!
Tamat: Ready for an awesomely awesome question?
Tamat: OK HERE I GOOOOOO!
Domino: about halflings?
Bludwyng asks: Esorpa was the ambassador to The Claws of Veeshan in the last age, but now she lies dead before Ganak's Battlement. Has The Ring of Scale withdrawn it's ambassador, or is there a new one? Are they still in contact with Velious?
- Jindrack: The Ring of Scale and the Claws of Veeshan have not been in contact with each other for some time. The dragons are discovering that this Age of Destiny is a very tough Age for them. The RoS have not appointed a new ambassador at this time as they are determining the best course of action to take with the loss of Esorpa.
- Jindrack: It's a rough time to be a dragon...
- Jindrack: who yelled out "Cuz they have phat lewtz!" ??
Sharskea: Stop dodging the issue, Halflings demand an answer, when will we get more than a pie!! Halfings POWER!
- Kirstie: For anyone wondering GU43 is planned to come to the live servers next week
- Froech: I thought we'd agreed to pull halflings out of the game?
- Domino: ack!
- Gnobrin does a thumbsup!
- Froech: Just a "small" change, right?
- kiara: HAH!
- Domino: they're all being pulled out, and chained to the tradeskill development desk, I hear
An Announcement
Tamat: Before we close officially I want to take this time to thank everyone for all the support that you've given me and this website over the years. As many of you know I've been deeply involved with the EverQuest II community since 2003. Unfortunately all things must come to an end and my involvement with EverQuest II is no exception.
Today is officially my last day on the EverQuest II side of Allakhazam and I'm happy to leave both EQ2 Allakhazam and EverQuest II while it's in such a healthy state. In my stead Calthine will be taking over the day to day operations of EQ2 Allakhazam. She's proved to be an amazing asset to both Allakhazam and the gaming community as a whole.
- Lyndro: Thanks for coming everyone!
- Lyndro: WHAT?
Out of all the networks I've been able to be a part of this is without a doubt the best. The team working on EQ2 AKZ is simply amazing and I owe all my success to them.
The good news is I'm not going very far! I'll still be working directly for Allakhazam on projects directly relating to our new and improved website hub. If you haven't had a chance yet I encourage you to check out what we've been doing at Allakhazam.com (http://www.allakhazam.com).
While you're there take a gander at our MMORPG Gamelist (http://www.allakhazam.com/gamelist.html) for the latest and most up to date information about everything MMO.
- Tamat takes another bite of pie!!!!
- Gnobrin: We're sad to see you go tamat, but welcome and congratulations to Calthine!
- Draknorr: lame plugs ftw
- Tamat: I hate you
- Tamat: *Ahem* We'll that's going to do it for this Dev Chat! I hope you've enjoyed yourselves and I trust most of you will leave here much more uberl33t than you we're before. Goodnight, Godbless ... Goodbye! :)
- Lyndro: Woot! Calthine!
- Calthine: Hehe
- Archonix throws pie at Tamat
- Calthine: Thanks everyone!
- Gnobrin throws rice!
- Gnobrin: oops, wait...
- Domino: Congratulations Calthine, and don't think you'll escape us, Tamat! :)
- AutumnKiss: Thanks for joining us!
- Tamat: Thanks for coming everyone!!!
- HaohmaruEQ: Shoryuken!
- Froech: Good night, folks. We certainly appreciate you stopping by :)
The After Party
Several developers stayed after the formal chat and braved the free-for-all. What follows are player-dev conversations picked out of the mish-mash of after chat chatting. Because multiple conversations were happening at once, these have been edited for continuity -Calthine
- Baej: Mystic community seems to be getting smaller =(.. think there is alot of issues that could be fixed simple but it only going to get worse.. but hey. .atlest they said they will fix ROK Fable set stuff.. now if only they will look into stats 2.
- Archonix: Baej: Stats are being looked into as well
- KurtD: since you guys didn't answer us in the chat..can you answer us hear? what do you think about making all classes available to all factions on pvp servers?
- Lyndro: KurtD: That question wasn't posted. But it isn't something that we have any plans on doing.
- monksrock: Rothgar: I actcutally have 2 questions. 1.) Is the 2GB memory crash still being looked into?, and 2.) Is the Brawler STR AA line going to be looked into for a fix to work with the epics?
- Rothgar: A certain amount of processing has to be done on the client, especially things that are very computationally heavy.
- Lyndro: Monksrock: The brawler strength line was changed to remove the no weapon requirement. It was added back at the behest of the community on a whole. Allowing use of the strength line with the epic would either mean re-evaluating the epic or re-evaluating the strength line
- Lyndro: It was an unpopular change originally. Monks use that line to level up. Changing it for the epic would make it much less useful for that. I'm not going to flat out say no, but I'd put the chances of that happening as low
- Bozidar: SOE/ALLAKAZAM STAFF: honestly, wouldn't a more topical dev chat be more useful to folks? Is it that hard to have Domino sit for an hour on Crafting and answer some questions for her 'audience', and maybe Aeralik sit for an hour on mechanics? Having everyone there to answer questions on all topics seems rather unfulfilling to most.
- Calthine: (I didn't answer in chat (multitasking, you know), but I'll answer it here.) We always ask SOE if they'd like a topic at these chat, and chat's have been topical before. This one we decided to go FFA since it's been so long since the last one.
- Skandragon: rothgar: If the speed hacking is multi-core related, it is fixable without a driver update, no?
- Rothgar: The multi-core related problem you're talking about was fixed quite awhile back.
- Skandragon: How about a command players can use to report speed hackers, and if there have been triggers logged, you can disable that player?
- Lyndro: Yeah Skandragon... Players wouldn't use that to harrass each other ever...
- Rothgar: The fact is that there can always be false positives, and no automated system would be fair.
- Skandragon: It would only happen IF there were logs of speed hacking.
- Skandragon: Rothgar: It's not automated. Trust people, or don't, but involve them.
- Skandragon: Rothgar: we had 6 people /petition people in KC yesterday. The cheater remained in game for 6 hours.
- Rothgar: You said kick them if there were things logged... thats automated no?
- Skandragon: No, logging is one aspect of the prodecure.
- Rothgar: Lyndro already posted on the forums that the cheating issue has been handled. So continuing on about it is somewhat a moot point.
- Skandragon: That is, you control the logs -- you trust them.
- Skandragon: Has been handled? I disagree...
- Rothgar: Skandragon, please understand there is some time between us making a fix, and it getting out on live servers.
- Lyndro: We have people who look at those logs (and other exploit logs) almost full time. They catch a lot of people, but they don't catch everyone.
- Kirstie: Skandragon we are aware of the issue with people doing what you are describing in KC and we are taking ongoing steps to address it along with what Lyndro said. Were currently not happy with the state it is in just as much as you I think.
- Skandragon: Rothgar: What I'm looking for here is until there is a real fix, more proactive and timely GM intervention.
- Rothgar: I'm a programmer, so I can't comment on GM response. But I'm sure the GM's are very busy resolving customer service issues.
- Skandragon: I'm sure they are, so dedicate one or two GMs to the task of responding to exploit reports.
- Skandragon: If you need to, allow certain players that consistently give valid reports a fast-track to a GM.
- Skandragon: Once this problem is fixed in code, we can disband that trust relationship.
- Rothgar: Good ideas
- GwynethNajena: Aeralik, just to clarify on the arrows, did you mean that they would be useable from 70 and scale to 80 or only useable at 80? you can help clear up a questin in the ranger ww :)
- Aeralik: arrows are currently 67 to use which means a level 67 player can equip them. the arrows are rated level 70 though so for calculations and scaling they use level 70. the fix is basically the same they will be 70 to use but calculate based on level 80
- Aeralik: im also giving them a 5 level leeway so fabled items which go above level 80 for a rating wont scale down
- nektulosbeele: Aeralik ummmm, small problem with that. If lvl 67 arrows are actually lvl 70, how come when you equip lvl 67 arrows with an RSB, the /weapon damage of an RSB is lower then when you had no arrows equipped?
- Aeralik: rigid scale bow is level 74 technically so scales down to 70
- nektulosbeele: Ok, in that case, that is mind blowing, but it does explain things... so a lvl 70 bow is actually lvl 74, but a lvl 67 arrow is lvl 70... got it... Dude, that is screwy
- Aeralik: im gonna add rangers to some procs like the tradeskill rings but expect some changes to proc mechanics
- Goldentale: Probably the least important question of the night: Is there a chance we will see the add on packs like Splitpaw Saga put back to its pre nerf levels, specifically Harclave's runs which were incredibly fun for the 2 weeks before they got the beginning of "retunings"?
- Lyndro: Harclaves probably won't be touched again, and if it was it wouldn't go back to the state that it was in before the tuning.
- Cochy: If any of the mechanics people are around is the fact that damage shields generally only effect melees considered an issue? If so is there plans to fix it
- Lyndro: Cochy: Damage shields can be flagged to effect melees or casters. They are different ways of flagging the spells. While I can't say how each one works, it is intentional that they don't all work the same.
- Cochy: yeah I understand that, I am curious why they generally only effect melees though
- Cochy: it puts us at a huge disadavantage on those mobs that do
- Lyndro: Cochy: because that is the traditional concept of a damage shield. I consider spell based damage shields to be "feedback" spells
- Lyndro: Cachy: To be honest I don't know of a good reason aside from us not having made more.
- Cochy: good enough for me, more caster only feedbacks would be appreciated :)
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