The "What were they thinking?" thread

[OngorDrakan]

I loved Odus, but think it was always a deserted island. The Kerrans do drop lots of goodies though, gems n money.

[Foxboxx]

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

I always figured that the Karanas were in a valley, possibly below sea level.

If I remember correctly, there's a waterfall near the druid camp at the end of the East Karana river, which certainly supports the theory of the Karanas being quite a bit lower than other areas.

[Dr4z3r]

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

If I remember correctly, there's a waterfall near the druid camp at the end of the East Karana river, which certainly supports the theory of the Karanas being quite a bit lower than other areas.

A large waterfall is visible from the Barbarian fishing village at the SE end of EK.

[Wildas]

I think it would be pretty lame and bland if every item had stats exactly lined up to classes that can use an item. It gives variety and makes it so there's not always one clear best item set for a slot.

[mgellan]

Totemic Gauntlets! Like the +5 SvC is nice but int on a shm only item? WTF?

Regards,
Mg

[BobSmith]

One of the things that bugged me until they fixed it was the "tell" you got from an NPC when you cast a damaging spell on them:

A spiderling tells you "I was hit for 10 points of non-melee damage."

No one thought to clean that up in beta? I cannot imagine it was difficult to fix.

[Extunarian]

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

Totemic Gauntlets! Like the +5 SvC is nice but int on a shm only item? WTF?

Regards,
Mg

You still go them though, didn't you? [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I know I did.

[MiRo2]

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

There is also a very gradual incline in Kithicor. (not enough to account for the change in elevation of course).

When I have Levitate on and my max FPS set at 100, I hardly sink at all when running. If I run from HK zone line to WC zone line in Kith without looking down, I'm well above the trees by the time I hit the zone wall by WC. It certainly is a gradual increase, but the overall increase is still pretty large.

[stormlord]

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

I always felt that the guards in EverQuest were too high level for their areas. I understand why, I just think it defeats some of the immersion. Captain Silvermoon in Greater Faydark for example, could walk into Crushbone and get rid of the orc hordes in a matter of minutes. Deputy Budo in Misty Thicket could handle Lord Pickclaw just with dirty looks.

If they didn't make them so strong than evil players would probably kill them constantly. The higher their level, the less likely this will happen. There're other options. They could make their loot pathetic, but that wouldn't really make sense would it? They could make their faction hurt an evil player, but that wouldn't really make sense either since evil fights good. End result is that there always needs to be guards available so that new players aren't burdened too greatly. So they have to prevent the guards from being unavailable or killed, at least on a consistent basis. It's a balancing issue and especially important for MMOs.

Immersion works best in single player RPGs. It'll never work in MMOs consistently because people are different and do not have the same tolerance. I mean, no one wants to wait for the guy that's still talking to the non-player about the quest (he wants to feel immersed in the world), so they run off and tell him to come or they'll kick him from the group and invite someone else. That's pretty much how it works. In MMOs we're all pushed to go at the same pace, and when we can go at our own, it's basically a single player RPG being re-marketed as an "MMO" and given a new face. Community > You. Sucks for immersion. This is why MMO's can sometimes feel like a job. It's not that what you're doing isn't fun, it's that you feel responsible for your community of friends and party members. It's like when we're in a group (on project1999). If your group needs you, like if you're a healer, you don't want to ditch them for minor reasons, so you often stay against your wishes. It becomes more like a job than something that's fun because you want to be there for them (but not yourself). It's a tug-of-war. And it will always remain that way if it's a true MMO.

I've been around forever so don't school me. I've never met an MMO that met my particular immersive desires. The only way I've ever truly met my immersive standards is by downloading mods for single player games and customizing the experience to ME. Sure, I can play an mmo alone (by soloing). I can even pick an MMO that's in reality a single-player game and play that. It's not the best, though. And at the end of the day, I like to sometimes play MMO's because I like to see other people. When I get tired of always being rushed and not feeling immersed, then I pick up a single player game. That's how it has happened for me.

*************

My addition to this "What were they thinking?" is.... what were they thinking when they made the clothspinner merchant in south qeynos move from the crows tavern to the blacksmith and when when you hail her to buy/sell she resumes moving again in about 10 seconds and the window is lost. I mean, all that needs to be done is to make her pause for a longer period after she's hailed. AS it's now, you have to hail her over and over and over every 5 or 10 seconds if she's doing her waypoints.

[stormlord]

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

I think it would be pretty lame and bland if every item had stats exactly lined up to classes that can use an item. It gives variety and makes it so there's not always one clear best item set for a slot.

This is kind of what sony did with this game, over time. If you examine the history of items you will see that, at least initially, there was a lot of variety. But as time went on you would increasingly see item sets and item hierarchy that's simply extrapolated from one expansion to the next. So what you would get is something like a 5% increase in all stats and a couple extra mods here and there, but overall the items would pretty much be exactly hte same. You can't really design a character with one thing in mind because most items in modern EQ are very generic and it's mainly the grade of the item that matters not so much its unique characteristics. I'm not saying that items can't be distinct, but there's a very pronounce generic feel to modern items in this game.

Believe it or not, some people like simple cookie-cutter items. There's one single player game i'm interested in and there's a guy that complains that there're too many magical items with stats. He says he doesn't want to look at the items to see which ones he should use because it's too complicated and that's not why he plays RPGs. HOnestly, I don't understand his viewpoint. I love complicated item systems, it gives me something to do. But, everyone plays RPGs differently, so...

I'm a hobbyist programmer with a degree in computers so I guess my background influences my tastes. I love to be confused by an elaborate system. The last thing I want is something that's cut and dry. I love to be thrown in a loop.

Simplicity is a turn off for me. That doesn't mean that people who disagree with me on an issue are stupid or simplistic. It might be that they spend more time doing other things like examining quests and roleplaying their character. Maybe they focus more on the whole than I do. I love to get lost in the details. At least there's enough games and mods out there for everyone to be happy.

This all just underlines for me the value of single player games. With those, I can have an experience customized for me.