Simple QoL fixes that would not jeopardize classic?

[Nycon43]

DoT damage in chat log, remove pets stealing exp.

[Swish]

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Vivitron]

1. Auto server boot characters that die twice without sending input between the deaths.
2. Make summoned bags leave the contents on your cursor or revert to unusably heavy bags instead of eating your gear after 30 min disconnect.

Dot damage would be nice, even if just added in on a post-timeline qol patch.

[BigPlays]

Anything in the game that was designed to keep players playing "specifically" because of the monthly fee should be looked at or adjusted. They removed the Hybrid experience penalty, so I think removing pets taking 50% exp makes sense as well. The DoT dmg reduction while moving is also dumb and should never have been added to EQ.

I think certain things in the game are hard by design but others like one week spawns, the drop % of rare loot etc were there intentionally to keep people paying $$. I think if they made this game today, knowing how everything evolved, EQ would have exp pots for real cash, buy PP for cash, buy cosmetic items for cash, just like live EQ today. It would probably be free to play, so you can twink out a lv 1 character without killing a mob.

[cd288]

Originally Posted by BigPlays [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Anything in the game that was designed to keep players playing "specifically" because of the monthly fee should be looked at or adjusted. They removed the Hybrid experience penalty, so I think removing pets taking 50% exp makes sense as well. The DoT dmg reduction while moving is also dumb and should never have been added to EQ.

I think certain things in the game are hard by design but others like one week spawns, the drop % of rare loot etc were there intentionally to keep people paying $$. I think if they made this game today, knowing how everything evolved, EQ would have exp pots for real cash, buy PP for cash, buy cosmetic items for cash, just like live EQ today. It would probably be free to play, so you can twink out a lv 1 character without killing a mob.

None of those things in your first paragraph were done because of monthly subscriptions. Hybrid exp penalties were implemented because on paper SOE thought hybrids would be more powerful than other classes (kind of right with Bards, but otherwise ended up being incorrect which is why they ended up removing). Pets taking 50% exp was done for balance purposes because otherwise no one would play any other class nor would there be any benefit to a pet class grouping. DoT damage while moving is also for balance purposes because it would be cheap/cheesy to allow someone like a Druid to just easily kite mobs without any risk because they get full DoT damage while moving. Nothing has anything to do with subscriber money.

[BigPlays]

Originally Posted by cd288 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

None of those things in your first paragraph were done because of monthly subscriptions. Hybrid exp penalties were implemented because on paper SOE thought hybrids would be more powerful than other classes (kind of right with Bards, but otherwise ended up being incorrect which is why they ended up removing). Pets taking 50% exp was done for balance purposes because otherwise no one would play any other class nor would there be any benefit to a pet class grouping. DoT damage while moving is also for balance purposes because it would be cheap/cheesy to allow someone like a Druid to just easily kite mobs without any risk because they get full DoT damage while moving. Nothing has anything to do with subscriber money.

I do not think everyone would play a pet class simply because it did not take 50% of the exp. I think people would play them because they like to solo or just like the play style. DoT damage makes no sense because if you are moving you are not medding. So the time you lose while just running and not medding seems to be worse than just rooting.

I do think a decent amount the logistics around things in the game took the sub $$ into consideration. Now that it is FTP, they added in a bunch of things you can buy like exp pots. The goal of EQ was for them to make $$ off of subs because things like micro transactions did not exist at the time. If micro transactions were a thing I would guarantee EQ would have been a different game.

[cd288]

Originally Posted by BigPlays [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I do not think everyone would play a pet class simply because it did not take 50% of the exp. I think people would play them because they like to solo or just like the play style. DoT damage makes no sense because if you are moving you are not medding. So the time you lose while just running and not medding seems to be worse than just rooting.

I do think a decent amount the logistics around things in the game took the sub $$ into consideration. Now that it is FTP, they added in a bunch of things you can buy like exp pots. The goal of EQ was for them to make $$ off of subs because things like micro transactions did not exist at the time. If micro transactions were a thing I would guarantee EQ would have been a different game.

I was CSR back in the classic era and they definitely weren't doing things like pet exp etc. due to subscriber dollars. You seem to not recall the actual history of EQ and that this was essentially the first legitimate MMO ever made...no one was making game design decisions based around subscriber numbers (the original devs didn't even think they'd get like 100k subscribers, they thought this was going to be a minor niche game played by some D&D nerds). They designed the game the way they did upfront and then made balance changes as things went along. You're just not correct when it comes to classic era EQ.

Subscriber-based game design decisions didn't start really coming into play until like Luclin. Things they've done in the 2020s with a FTP and dying game have literally no applicability or relevance to classic era EQ and "what they would've done" lol

[sajbert]

Buyback function from vendors
Reclaim command for non-questreward turn-ins to NPCs

[Jimjam]

There is buy back … hell anyone on the server can buy back ��

An extra buy back seems rife for dupes.

[loramin]

Originally Posted by BigPlays [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

So here is what I am trying to figure out. I always hear that the devs never intended people to play the way they do, sitting at camps for hours on end. Let's take LGuk for example. From what people say the devs thought during the interviews (I have not watched any of the interviews so I am going by word of mouth from the people who did) was that players would just adventure through the dungeon, get to the mob (say arch magi) kill him them just move on.

Exactly. You'd hang out at the zone entrance until you formed a group, and then that group would start moving through the dungeon, trying to find a mob that drops something cool.

Originally Posted by BigPlays [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

If that is the case, it would take forever to level if you were not constantly pulling mobs and you were just making a bee line to the camp (ignoring mobs off the beaten path)

Not at all: camping gets you loot, not more XP. You get the same XP whether you kill five mobs respawning four times, or whether you wander around killing twenty different mobs.

Originally Posted by BigPlays [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

It is like we are all playing EQ wrong according to the devs.

You have to remember that when the game came out, no one knew the arch magi even existed, let alone that he dropped the Shining Metallic Robes and spawned at loc 1184, -832. Plus, even if you had that loc, there wasn't a map available to show you where that loc was.

It took a lot of time adventuring in Guk before people figured the details out, and then it took an even longer time before they added that info online. Also keep in mind there wasn't just one wiki, but many different sites (with separate, piecemeal data), that data often was inconsistent (or flat-out inaccurate), and many players didn't even read those sites at all ... some actually considered it cheating!

So, while you can learn just about anything by checking the wiki today, most EQ info took years to become common knowledge on live ... and you know what happened every year? A new expansion came out, with brand new zones/mobs/items.

I'm not going to pretend that on live no one ever camped a specific mob: they absolutely did. But the ratio of people "exploring" vs farming was drastically different on live. The developers back then certainly knew what they were doing ... they just didn't account for how much more game knowledge we'd have decades later.