Dev Chat July 31 2008  

This Dev Chat took place in the #eq2 channel on irc.allakhazam.com on Thursday, July 31, 2008, roughly from 5:00pm to 6:00pm, Pacific time. About 53 people were in attendance.

Very little editing has been done to this log. Mostly to correct a few obvious typos or auto-format trash.

Introduction

Bludwyng: Greetings and welcome to the Allakhazam's/SOE EverQuest II Dev Chat. I am Bludwyng, and although I am now the ZAM Sr. Wikibase Admin and no longer just working on EQ2, it is still my primary game and I am happy to be your MC for tonight.

For the EQ2 team here at Allakhazam's, we have Calthine, you senior Community Manager. Also with us is Raven and our two newest CMs, SpyderBite and Kain. Say hello to the nice people.

SpyderBite: Hellos everyones!

Calthine: Hiyas!

Raven: hi there

• Kain hides in a corner

Bludwyng: Now, with no further ado, I will ask our very own Kiara, now at SOE, to introduce the devs for tonight's shindig.

Kiara: I just want to let everyone know that we will not be answering expansion related questions at this time.

Bludwyng: Oh, I got confused. hehe The Devs will each introduce themselves. Devs, say hello to the nice people!

Aeralik: Hello, I'm Chris "Aeralik" Kozak mechanics coder/designer

Kirstie: Hi nice people (and also to the not so nice people) I'm the Associate Producer on EQII.

Jindrack: Hi, I'm Jeremy "Jindrack" Gess, Design Supervisor

Fyreflyte: Hi =) Fyreflyte here (so says the nametag). I design items.

Autenil: hi everyone! I'm Autenil, EQII's Technical Director

Kaitheel: Heyya! Nathan "Kaitheel" McCall -EQll Live event wrangler and quest monkey

Ilucide: Greets folks. I'm Noel "Ilucide" Walling, Design Supervisor on EQII.

Archonix: Howdy, I'm Chris "Archonix" Junior, Mechanics Supervisor

Gninja: Hello to the nice people :) I'm Carlos "Gninja" Mora Associate designer. I am the random stuff dev gnome.

Domino: Hiya folks! I'm Emily "Domino" Taylor the tradeskill game designer for EQII. I also do stuff for the guide program and random other stuff. Like feeding cookies to the others.

Gnobrin: Greetings! I am Aaron "Gnobrin" Bisnett, Community Rep!

Gninja: mmm cookies... :p

Q&A

Bludwyng: Dolby asks, What's the status of the new "WoW like" map system that was talked about at the "Info the Future" panel last Fan Faire?

Bludwyng: oop!!!! 1 sec..

Bludwyng: OK, great. Here is the format for tonight's chat. We have a set of questions that were received in advance and sent to SOE so they know who is gonna answer them and may have prepared their answers in advance. Once we have exhausted those, we will begin handing them new questions that you have submitted today. This will go a little slower. This will go a little slower, but we will get through as many questions as we can in the time available.

Bludwyng: That said, here is the first question.

Calthine: newb.

Rothgar: Hellos, I'm Rothgar... Programmer. =)

Bludwyng: Dolby asks, What's the status of the new "WoW like" map system that was talked about at the "Info the Future" panel last Fan Faire?

Autenil: Nice, Rothgar ;)

Bludwyng: NOW you can answer it. :)

Autenil: We are still very excited about the new map system. It's currently in progress, but we won't have anything to show about it for a little while.

Bludwyng: Atugein asks, How's Odus doing these days? We know it still exists. When are we going to hear more from the friendliest li'l continent on Norrath?

Bludwyng: oops, Stugein asks...

Ilucide: Not much anyone can say about Odus since the Erudites' magical malfunction with the Combine Spires and Odus' subsequent disappearance from the face of Norrath. But who knows? Maybe one day it will come back. One thing's for sure - there's no telling what may have happened to the place in its travels...

Bludwyng: Stugein also asks, How about making some of the higher guild rewards accessible to people in small guilds but at increased cost, instead of making the rewards only level-based?

Ilucide: No plans to do this - it would only give less of an incentive for guilds to work together to level.

Bludwyng: Who will be supporting Voice Chat? EQ2 customer support or Vivox?

Autenil: EQ2 customer service will be handling issues with Voice Chat

Autenil: We also have a new forum specifically for voice chat issues on the forums

Bludwyng: Frekkles asks, The Living Legacy site has tantalizing hints about Veskar. Can you tell us anything about this zone?

Ilucide: Much of Veksar has been destroyed, but if you go and take a look, recently the silt has slid away from the dome in the Fens of Nathsar, revealing something interesting...

Ilucide: Stay tuned!

Bludwyng: Lilany asks, Why did level 20-59 items got revamped but not 60-68ish? There's a gap now between the revamped items and kunark items.

Fyreflyte: Due to the massive number of items that were revamped, we didn;t have time to get to everything. Properly statting higher level items is more complex and time consuming, and we just didn't have time to get to those in this update. I'll definitely be revisiting the 60-69 items, as well as those with effects attached to them (which were also passed over in this update).

Bludwyng: Anvill asks, From a distance the Guild Halls look very much like the concept art we saw last Fan Faire. Did SOGA do all the art for them? Will they have that far east look like Fallen Dynasty and even Neriak, which were also done by SOGA?

Jindrack: SOGA did do all of the artwork for the guild halls, but they don't have the far east look of the other zones they've done.

Jindrack: They look much more medieval and fit the EQ2 art style

Jindrack: They also look very very close to the concept art pictures we previously showed. :)

Bludwyng: Marrowna asks, The new live event "fluff" rewards are great. Are there any plans in place to provide more variety in the look of the clothing rather than just changing colors on the same designs?

Archonix: New and unique appearances are something we are constantly working into the game. As they become available I'm sure they'll find their way into live event rewards.

Bludwyng: Stugein asks, What, if any, incentive do you feel is there for people to use one of the precious 24 raid slots on a Shadowknight? What benefit do they bring to the table that one of the other classes can't do far better or more efficiently?

Aeralik: The primary role of the shadowknight is tanking which is why a raid should want to bring one along. Currently when it comes to tanking some classes definitely outshine the rest which is something we will be looking into. Tank balance though is more of a long term project. So don't expect anything in the next few updates but it is on our radar.

Bludwyng: What's the ETA on Voice Chat features like "Voice Fonts", voice activation (instead of push-to-talk) and proximity chatting?

Autenil: Additional features on Voice Chat currently have no ETA. We're excited about bringing more features and you can be sure that we'll let you know when to expect them!

Bludwyng: Cayanetta asks, The Living Legacy schedule predicts a Guild Hall Event in September. Will guild halls arrive before that? Will there be events leading up to their introduction?

Jindrack: We haven't announced when guild halls will be released, but we watch for information coming out of Fan Faire.

Jindrack: Also, with GU47 you've seen activity begin on the docks,

Jindrack: We are adding to that in GU48 which will allow players to help in the ongoing construction projects.

Bludwyng: Phafferd asks, What will the 5 year Veteran's Rewards be?

Ilucide: We're still talking about them right now. We have some ideas, but nothing concrete right now.

Bludwyng: Sutures asks, Last Fan Faire Lockeye and Gallenite talked about merging spells. We have only seen this in the Cure line so far, will there be more?

Aeralik: Sometimes plans change once we look at the broader picture. This is one of those because it would have meant some radical changes for some classes and minor changes for others. To make a long story short though we decided not to go through with it. I'd still like to see some combining when it comes to self and group buffs but right now there are no plans to do this.

Bludwyng: Labratt asks, Are there any updates on the skeletal model changes?

Kirstie: The skeletal revamp has been through a lot of iterations internally on the EQII team and is now a bit of a misnomer. The original technology that we had planned to use didn't work out as we expected (software, who knew).

Kirstie: And we are also being careful not to drastically change the character models. We don't want anyone to log in one day and not recognize their favorite character.

Kirstie: What we are focusing on now is ways to customize the look of your character with what we're referring to as "snap ons" that will change your characters profile or silhouette.

Kirstie: There are also a few other plans to enhance the look of characters that we'll be talking about more once we are more confident that they will work within the EQII framework

Bludwyng: Labratt also asks, Are there any plans to put guild halls anywhere besides Antonica and the Commonlands? That's an awful long way to go for a Gorwynian....

Jindrack: The specifics of where guild halls will be located hasn't been entirely released yet, so keep your eyes out for more information.

Jindrack: As for the long way to go, there may be ways to assist your return to the guild hall once you initially get there. ;)

Bludwyng: Are there any plans to make a stand-alone Vivox client so one can chat with one's friends

Bludwyng: maybe hooked into Station Launcher Beta?

Autenil: We're currently planning on integrating Voice Chat into the Station Launcher so you'll be able to chat from any game

Autenil: even non-SOE games :)

Autenil: perhaps there will be more info at Fan Faire...

Bludwyng: Lilany asks, Are there any plans to fill out level 60-70 content?

Ilucide: We actually have quite a bit of 60-70 content. Four overland zones cover that range, including Tenebrous Tangle, the Barren Sky, the Bonemire and the Loping Plains. So for right now, no immediate plans.

Bludwyng: Raven says, Do you plan on adding any more AA options - a crafter tree for example, or a base tree for fighter/scout/priest/mage to bring back the whole 3 tier class structure that was in the game to begin with?

Aeralik: The 3 tier class structure sounds like a good idea. Who knows what you may see in the future!

Bludwyng: Rivers, of Venekor, asks, Since the MC revamp for 1-59 is being postponed. How come the Treasured+ drops aren't being delayed as well? This is only going to make an already suffering TS market suffer further until GU48.when not in the game?

Domino: That question is a little misleadingly phrased. It's not a "MC revamp", only the crafted armor was held back from the revamp, it wasn't everything crafted. And since the mastercrafted armor had already been revamped post-Kunark it should not significantly impact the outfitter community to wait for one more game update.

Domino: The small delay will allow the crafted armor revamp to be much more consistent and smooth. I'm working on it in another window right now in fact!

• Domino tints things pink just because :p

Bludwyng: here comes a multi-part question...

Bludwyng: Lore, Knowledge and the Pursuit of books!

Bludwyng: Since Gorewyn is a neural city, could they not carry books from both cities for adventures to purchase?

Bludwyng: Elquinjena adds, Or at least make each city's Librarian willing to offer his books to anyone.

Bludwyng: Part of the heart beat of Norrath and EQ2 is the lore from both sides of the fence.

Bludwyng: How would it unbalance the game mechanics to allow books from both cities available to any who wish to seek out the knowledge?

Bludwyng: there. :)

Jindrack: Allowing Gorowyn to sell both lore books is something we haven't really thought about until you brought it up just now. :) It is something we can discuss and look into for the possible future.

Bludwyng: AutumnKiss asks, With GU47, we saw an increase in faction for adventure writs. Will we be seeing this change for tradeskill writs as well, by any chance?

Domino: I've actually already posted this the tradeskill forum, but yes, you can expect to see a boost in faction for tradeskill writs in the future, GU48 if all goes well *eyes the gnomes*

Domino: however it may not be the same amount as the adventure writs saw

Domino: ^^ this applies to city writs only of course

Bludwyng: KurtD asks, In the past 5 LU's, there has been approximately 7 PVP changes. This averages out to a little over one pvp change a month. There have been glaring problems in PVP for many months that need a lot of attention, and I believe PVP'ers deserve more than one PVP update a month. How many developers are assigned to work on PVP, and have they been on hiatus for the past 5 LU's?

Aeralik: I would say pvp can expect a substantial change with the next live update. I'll probably speak more about it as it goes to test though.

Bludwyng: Lookthere asks, So far there are still a lot of memory leaks causing many players to crash randomly in zones. Is work still being done to fix this in the various zones its happening in?

Autenil: We're constantly looking into reducing memory usage in the client. We're currently preparing a hotfix that may mitigate some memory issues, but we never stop considering memory usage!

Bludwyng: Tenani asks, will we be able to port back to our house?

Jindrack: Currently there are no plans to allow the Call spells to go directly into your houses.

Jindrack: Technically the houses aren't aware that they connect to Freeport or Qeynos.

Jindrack: So the bind spell won't work in them.

Jindrack: However, you can get really close by binding on the door step in the city zone they are attached to.

Bludwyng: Kruhl asks, Can you bring all classes to all sides on the PVP servers? Lots of people think this would be a beneficial change. It would also likely encourage people to re-active. It also solves many issues including the question why only exiles can get mythicals on PVP servers..and cities are left in the dust.

Archonix: Sorry, we can only answer one pvp question a month!

Aeralik: I would say pvp can expect a substantial change with the next live update. I'll probably speak more about it as it goes to test though.

Jindrack: Hey, that's the same answer as above! ^^

Domino: :D

Gninja: cheater!

Aeralik: that would be a big hint then!

Bludwyng: Tenani asks, will we ever be able to see eq1 epics in eq2. as items or decorations

Kirstie: I'm not aware of any plans of that nature. But it is a really interesting idea that I will pass along to the art folks who couldn't join us today.

Bludwyng: Bantil1 asks What are the plans, if any, to update the graphics engine to offload more of it onto the video card and/or take advantage of multi-core cpus

Bludwyng: ?

Autenil: Engine upgrades and multi-core support are some features that we're very interested in. We're also growing the engineering team to tackle new features like this!

Bludwyng: Florence asks, What is your favorite coffee-based drink?

Kirstie: Mocha!

Fyreflyte: Does it have to contain coffee, or just be purchasable from a coffee-affiliated vendor?

Archonix: Anything Ilucide doesn't like

Jindrack: I don't drink coffee.

Domino: I don't drink coffee either.

Fyreflyte: I like the vanilla bean Frappuccinos from Starbucks

Gninja: We have this great new thing in the office. The Caffine I.V.!

Kaitheel: White mocha... yes with whip!

Kirstie: mmmm whip

Aeralik: venti non fat carmel macchiato!

Autenil: No coffee, Pepsi for me!

Bludwyng: Calthine asks, how many new red collection quests went live today?

Domino: ahh a topic that's been greatly speculated about on Test server! I believe they did not find them all before the update went live, but they have now all been located. There are two collections with this update, which can be found in 3 locations for those collection-happy epic tradeskillers. :)

Domino: At least one of the rewards should make at least one frostfell elf very happy.

Farewell

Bludwyng: Th-th-th-th-that's all, folks! We want to thank our daring and intrepid devs for giving us their time, and all of you for attending. Coffee-based drinks will be served in the FFA room, and I am sure a few of the devs will hang out for a short time to chat. Till next time, see ya in-game!

Calthine: Thanks for coming everyone!

SpyderBite: Goodnights everyones.. was good to sees everyones here tonights!

• Ilucide waves. Have a great evening!

• Kirstie quacks

Gninja: Bye all :)

Domino: thanks for coming folks! Off to stare at more armor stats!

EverQuest II Wikibase™