[Megathread] Everquest Next

[Valeron]

Well a leveless design is certainly more risky than having levels. A more sandbox type game is more risky. As you said, the destructible environments a risk. Some other choices are debatable like their skill choices and whatever trinity or non trinity model they are going for. They are taking much more of a risk than making a generic wow clone #1678 (although I don't really believe in most mmorpgs being wow clones, it's just propaganda by the whiners).

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Hi, I'm Joyrock the Hype-Train. ALL ABOARD! lol.

I've got several of my friends hyped up about this. My 2 older brothers (the ones that got me IN to MMO's with UO and EQ1) are excited about it too.

Indeed. I don't see much issue on this website but some others like the one I mentioned...oh boy what a mess.

[Loaf Lord]

Man, so much consternation about this game on other sites. Not really here but on places like mmorpg.com it's nothing but whining and fear mongering. Heck one thread is saying that they aren't taking risks with EQ Next. Are you kidding me? It has risk all over it. The safe thing would have been to make an updated version of EQ1 (which is really what a lot of those posters wanted).

This game went from not even on my radar to the point where it's my most anticipated mmorpg.

mmorpg.com is a cesspit. Check all of their sub forums and there is nothing but bitching. Makes the mmo champ community look like a sainthood.

[Fencers]

Well a leveless design is certainly more risky than having levels. A more sandbox type game is more risky. As you said, the destructible environments a risk. Some other choices are debatable like their skill choices and whatever trinity or non trinity model they are going for. They are taking much more of a risk than making a generic wow clone #1678 (although I don't really believe in most mmorpgs being wow clones, it's just propaganda by the whiners).

Yea but games are made/were made/will be made with similar mechanics as sandbox, multiclass, leveless, soft trinity, etc. Some of them have a lot of money and hype behind them- Age of Wushu, Black Desert, Archeage, PS2, TSW, Guild Wars 2, Wildstar, etc.

It's only a "risky" move if we consider EQ as a franchise. But really. They couldn't just make EQ3 in this current market. It's just headed in a direction where the "safe" option of a hard trinity, theme park MMO with static combat is not what gets headlines anymore.

[N B K]

Well a leveless design is certainly more risky than having levels. A more sandbox type game is more risky. As you said, the destructible environments a risk. Some other choices are debatable like their skill choices and whatever trinity or non trinity model they are going for. They are taking much more of a risk than making a generic wow clone #1678 (although I don't really believe in most mmorpgs being wow clones, it's just propaganda by the whiners).

Ultima Online was leveless and it worked very well. They aren't doing EXACTLY what UO did but I get the idea and I like it. Gives a lot of room for personal customization which I know I'll enjoy.

For example in UO I had a Ninja Paladin and a Necro Archer.. hard to explain unless you played the game but it made for some interesting and OP builds. AND it was VERY fun, which is what counts and keeps subs going.

Ugh I wish they would release more infoz!

[Qooju]

I made an account just to comment on this thread after reading up on EQN. Call it nostalgia or what you will, but no mmo to date has replaced the pure joy that was playing a bard in planes of power and beyond, with fading memories and weird spell mechanics like gating enemies back to their spawn point.

Honestly, as great as EQN looks, i'd be giving it a try regardless. If they can do anything remotely close to the stuff that gave me soul-clenching panic during raids and a real fear and respect running around landscapes where aggro meant death or a prayer sprint to the zone line, I'll drink all the koolaid.

[Loaf Lord]

Deleted. A simple google search solved my question. Yay intelligence!

[draykorinee]

This game went from not even on my radar to the point where it's my most anticipated mmorpg.

But, you don't even like MMO's anymore!

I agree with you there are a few risks involved particularly the destructible world and leveless design, we saw Anet chicken out of doing that and imo it was detrimental.

[deathjester]

Welcome to the next WoW aka the only mmo that matters. Why?
1) People are bored of WoW.
2) SWTOR will never take off due to a game engine that is horrible.
3) F2P is just how it is going to be from now on and we don't have a choice. Titan will do the same and will probably be delayed for 5 years after seeing footage of EQ next, maybe cancelled indefinitely, especially with all the financial stuff going on at Blizzard.
4) TES is going to be be a huge bust AFTER they fleece people, with IGN (The EA of magazines, aka the devil) giving them a high rating. It is made for console gamers so the hardcore WoW people will hate it. It might be "somewhat sandbox" but if the graphics/game engine/immersion suck (they do) then no one is going to care. Combat looks HORRID.
5) Neverwinter will take the "modders" and "roleplayers" from TES. That game isn't my thing but it isn't going anywhere due to it being a dungeon master's valhalla.


EQ Next looks like the game that is going to make people upgrade their computer. Every so often a game like that comes along. Quake was one. If you are wondering about the game engine look at Planetside 2. If your computer sucks turn off shadows. The engine LOVES multiple cores and can support a STAGGERING amount of things/players doing things on screen.

Might be a good time to upgrade because Haswell is nothing special and you can pick up a low price z77 board and ivy bridge, I5, I7. Go at least 4 cores. Also? Go Nvidia. The game engine uses Phys X. Forcelight engine. I can only imagine this is why AMD's top guy went loco on Tom's Hardware about Phys X being stupid (I like AMD video cards btw, I am just letting you know what hardware to get).

See you on the field.

[Rendia]

Could anyone confirm that the following is a legitimate beta registration email (i.e. is it the same)? I signed up using this link because the US site apparently won't accept EU players and the UK/EU site forces you to have a ProSiebenSat.1 account, despite me already having a standard SOE account.

If no one else has answered, yes, that is the same one I got from SOE.

[draykorinee]

Might be a good time to upgrade because Haswell is nothing special and you can pick up a low price z77 board and ivy bridge, I5, I7. Go at least 4 cores. Also? Go Nvidia. The game engine uses Phys X. Forcelight engine. I can only imagine this is why AMD's top guy went loco on Tom's Hardware about Phys X being stupid (I like AMD video cards btw, I am just letting you know what hardware to get).

See you on the field.

"Final specifications for the MMO have not yet been announced by the developers, but they are aiming to make sure that even 4, 5-year-old computers will be able to play it, even if some graphical quality might be lost"

Whilst you will ofc need a good computer for the best graphics, its not going to be a hog supposedly.

[Height]

Well, the only "risks" I see SOE taking from a design POV is the destructible environment. But the devs have already said there will be mechanisms in place so things don't get too crazy.

Maybe if you consider some of the departures EQN takes from the franchise itself- sure. But I am not sure that matters a whole lot to the new MMO market or audience. Are the people that first played an MMO in WoW or Maple Story 10 years ago longing for encumbrance and ultravision? Cursing Smeldy that they have such contrivances as a game map?

EQN doesn't seem all that risky, tbh. In fact, I feel like it is exactly the type of game EQ3 needed to be if they were going to keep the franchise alive outside of it's now niche audience.

Yah, the more the dust has settled and I have had time to think about it, the more I think this is the right direction for them to be successful. However, they have a lot of stars to align.

[deathjester]

Planetside 2 shares the same game engine, and it doesn't like 2 cores in large fights (essentially raids). It does however (and this is a good thing) take advantage of multiple cores very well. Shadows is the biggest CPU hit (like any mmo or massive FPS game). If you can play Planetside 2 on decent settings in medium sized fights with shadows down? Should be fine. It is a free game, so people can try out the game engine in advance.

[Deleted]

Planetside 2 shares the same game engine, and it doesn't like 2 cores in large fights (essentially raids). It does however (and this is a good thing) take advantage of multiple cores very well. Shadows is the biggest CPU hit (like any mmo or massive FPS game). If you can play Planetside 2 on decent settings in medium sized fights with shadows down? Should be fine. It is a free game, so people can try out the game engine in advance.

What it also is, is badly optimized and has trouble with Intel cards. :P

[deathjester]

Intel cards? What is an intel card. Please explain this sorcery to me. Are you talking about integrated graphics?

[Remilia]

What it also is, is badly optimized and has trouble with Intel cards. :P

What do you mean? Are you talking about hyper threading?

"Final specifications for the MMO have not yet been announced by the developers, but they are aiming to make sure that even 4, 5-year-old computers will be able to play it, even if some graphical quality might be lost"

Whilst you will ofc need a good computer for the best graphics, its not going to be a hog supposedly.

I guess ideally for EQN, it'd be a NVidia card because of PhysX, an i5 or i7 CPU, presuming the multi-core support from Forgelight Engine is better now.

I imagine due to Voxel based graphics / environment, the game will take a hell of a lot of RAM with a high view distance, so I'm guessing the usual 1-2GBs of RAM used for games would be insufficient. Think Minecraft.

Reducing view distance and graphics would relieve stress on the CPU and free up RAM, so ideally that's one of the things to poke about when it comes to performance.

[draykorinee]

What do you mean? Are you talking about hyper threading?
I guess ideally for EQN, it'd be a NVidia card because of PhysX, an i5 or i7 CPU, presuming the multi-core support from Forgelight Engine is better now.

I imagine due to Voxel based graphics / environment, the game will take a hell of a lot of RAM with a high view distance, so I'm guessing the usual 1-2GBs of RAM used for games would be insufficient. Think Minecraft.

Reducing view distance and graphics would relieve stress on the CPU and free up RAM, so ideally that's one of the things to poke about when it comes to performance.

Yeah the voxel stuff destroys my computer.

[Deleted]

Intel cards? What is an intel card. Please explain this sorcery to me. Are you talking about integrated graphics?

Ah wops, I mean Intel CPU's, especially I7's. I just woke up. >.>

[Deleted]

Everquest Next was a very, very positive surprise for me. I played EQ1 for a bit and liked it, but joined the game far too late. Played EQ2 from beta till about 2 years after launch and liked it, it still holds a special place in my heart, but there were just too many issues, the world felt dead, that first class overhaul completely changed the focus of my class, some people in my guild left etc.
But EQ Next has a nostalgia bonus for me. And then the announcement.... oh my god.

A while back I started to think that integrating Minecraft-gameplay into an MMORPG would be awesome and .. they're doing it!

The longer I play MMORPGs the more the 100% static world (even in GW2) annoys me more and more, fucking dailies, all that. So the ability to actually affect the world through my abilities in a real way, to dig into subterrean caves.... oh my god, yes!
The graphics look nice, as EQ2's did back in the day, but this time they're using a graphics engine that actually works well (EQ2's engine was horrible, couldn't play it on max settings even with a new pc 3 years after launch). Spell effects look nice, they're using a GW2 like ability system with only a couple of active abilities, more action-oriented gameplay....
Now they just have to take what they learned from EQ2 and observing other MMOs over the years, good and bad, and they got a *serious* contender.

I mainly waited for WildStar and Elder Scrolls Online. Now I just might be more interested in EQ Next than either of them.

Even if their destructible-world system doesn't work perfectly, it's a first step and imho future MMORPGs need something like this, make the world non-static, make content dynamic, player-driven/influenced. No more static daily hubs and that stuff, WoW really messed MMORPG gameplay up that way, I hope EQ Next can fix it, if they really pull everything off.

[deathjester]

I refuse to even buy TES online. It is just going to follow the normal TES/IGN treatment that SWTOR got as well. 10/10 rating, tons of people buy it and are disappointed, cept this is an MMO and not a single player game, which means when a guildleader, main tank, heals quit? People leave with them. It will be interesting to see if TES online dies faster then the TORtanic did. I think it will if it isn't F2P. Even then I don't see it being very successful outside of consoles. It looks dumbed down, the combat looks horrid, the graphics look mediocre, and when they aren't showing large-scale pvp or even pvp this late in the development? It is going to suck and suck hard.

It won't appeal to hardcore raiders, it won't appeal to pvp players, and the lore guys/DND crowd already has neverwinter, where they can create their own dungeons and stories.

Wildstar? I have no idea why Ultima Online and SWG could have housing and we had to wait this long for another game to have it, but it looks like it might do pretty well in Asia. Don't know how well it will do in the US though.

Please post on-topic and don't jump into a thread simply to bash other games. Infracted. -Edge

[onigan]

is there any info on this mmo-c guild?

im really interested being apart of a good, friendly, active group when ENQL and EQN both come out, (can you imagine all of us connecting our claims together and building a great guild hall with a small town around it? ^^)

EQNL can already be expected in a few months!