Community Summit Fall 2005

After getting home from a typical day at the office where I am finally able to access my email I find this gem in my inbox, from Blackguard himself, the invitation to the Community Summit. There was no point in deliberating; I was going!

The Summit itself consisted of a full Saturday of round table discussions, tour and a meet & greet with Producers, Designers, Marketing, PR and the Community Management staff. But this isn't what you are reading for - you want details!

In the first Round Table discussion, we discussed what one designer jested about as 'small changes', the Combat Revamp. This came as no small surprise to me, I half expected to hear a handful of negative comments. I was wrong, the feedback was quite positive, and the players present were decidedly happy with their respective classes.

Factions were another topic on the table. With the release of the Desert of Flames expansion three factions were introduced within the city of Maj'Dul. Faction finally means more than the several lines of extraneous text you get after killing goblins, orcs, gnolls, etc. It adds a dynamic element to the game that was necessary to keep things interesting. I think we can expect to see factions improved further, and expanded. One proposed idea was that it would be great for Qeynosian's and Freeportians to enter an opposing city and battle their respective enemies. This idea was met with good support from the community, and Producers agreed that it would be cool, and alluded to the possibility of seeing this in the future.

One topic many of the high level players and raiders hold near and dear are the uniqueness of armor and weaponry. This broached a lengthy discussion about what is right for EverQuest 2. Some things I, and you, can expect to see sometime in the near future are more variation in armor types and statistics. There will be plate armor balanced for Clerics, and vanguard armor types with tank statistics. Also expect to see more class-only armor, weapons and items. Outfitters and Woodworkers, you will be happy to know that some day in the not too distant future, your wares will be of more use to the classes that would typically use them. What do I mean? Yes, after all this time the statistics of crafted items will be changed to reflect the class that would actually use them! I expect spellbinders staves to have stats that would benefit a mage and possibly priest, and vanguard armor that provides strength, stamina and agility, as opposed to intelligence. The future looks good, very good.

Customizability and unique graphical appearance was the other hot subject on this topic. I do not expect to see rainbow colored dyes or the ability to drastically alter the coloration of armor types. However, our constant need to preserve our uniqueness isn't being ignored. There are plans to make 'tinting' a possibility, weather it be part of the creation process, or some other mechanic remains to be seen.

One of the difficulties to designing unique armor graphics is making sure they work with all races. A helm that looks good on an elvish character may not look very good on an oddly shaped Troll or Ratonga noggin. One of the Developers proposed that they could have racial specific armor types. This met a "thumbs up" from the attending players.

In conclusion, the game many of us have been playing for almost a year now is shaping up to be all it should be. The developers are listening to the fans input, and I couldn't be happier with the direction we are headed. The biggest question I have to ask myself is; "Is the game better today, than it was at release? How about 6 months ago? 3?" Yes, it is, and I have full confidence that it will only get bigger and better!

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Posted by Bogstench at 2005-10-05 08:38:36

sounds good look forward to the changes and additions of new armour typs. I towuld be nice to have more of a variaty to craft and to wear. Also more specific stats to the class to adore these would be cool. Look forward to another 6 month of playing