Kingdom of Sky: The Launch and Aftermath
Kingdom of Sky: The Launch and Aftermath
by. Ktok Th'Rooks - 02/28/06
The launch of Kingdom of Sky, the second expansion for EverQuest II, has come and gone; preceded by an involved and lore laden event that involved many players on each server working toward a common goal. The question remains, however, how was the launch itself? Overall, what are the impressions coming out of game during and just after the launch?
While few in number, the negative aspects of the launch included a major bout with server lag, zone crashes and outages. It is a faire assessment that the recent server mergers were a major factor in why these issues were widely felt rather than, as has been the case in the past, localized to the Antonia Bayle server. Many servers experienced crashes and multiple lockouts and shutdowns through the first few days of the expansion as the developers worked diligently to apply software and hardware optimization fixes to alleviate the problem. By Friday, the issues were resolved, and the crashes stopped. However, for many hardcore guilds who strive to earn global firsts, the lost productivity was perhaps felt the most acutely as they fell behind their brethren on less affected servers.
Less severe, but also baring mentioning, were the misprinted CD keys included with many retail boxes. A great many of these keys were not recognized as being valid at first, and this caused much lamentation among the faithful early adopters. Thankfully, this issue was resolved within hours through a major show of CSR force. It's unfortunate that such an oversight would happen in the first place, but the speed at which it was tracked down and resolved deserves some kudos.
One of the main questions to arise out of all of this due to the zone crashes of the Tenebrous Tangle is this: Why are the Kingdom of Sky zones not instancing? Yes, they are very large zones, even when sliced into island-sized parcels, yet the Tangle is still perpetually over populated, often seeing well over one hundred people in the zone on the Antonia Bayle server where I play, and it is reputed to be the same on many other highly populated servers. This makes harvesting or performing quests to kill specific mobs (which may have lines three groups deep waiting for them) a hassle and nowhere within sight of the city limits of "Fun." It seems that adding instancing would be a simple fix to a lot of issues with the new zones, and the exact reasons for why it was not done linger in the minds of players not yet high enough to take shelter in the less populated, higher level zones.
Tradeskillers, also, have had some important talking points following the KoS release. First and foremost would be the complete re-envisioning of how the stats related to crafted equipment should be distributed. Up until this point, crafted items typically had stats, HP, power, and resists on them. Starting with KoS crafted items, this is no longer the case. For example, armor now carried three stats, HP, and power, but no resists. The resists are to be found on jeweler accessories, which in turn do not carry stats. Given a complete set of player crafted gear from KoS, it would, in theory, all even out in the end. However, the change in philosophy feels like switching horses midstream.
Another concern for tradeskillers is that the rare crafted items are no longer of "Legendary" quality. They are, instead, counted as "Treasured". This lead to a concern that they may not be able to land hits on epic mobs, to which SOE countered by making epic mobs effected by all lower quality weapons. This seems like an off choice for a resolution, since simply making KoS rare crafted items Legendary would have maintained an underpinning principle that has existed since launch. That principle being that if you want to melee a raid mob, you will most likely need a Legendary weapon or better. More than a few people feel that this move is rather like cutting off ones nose to spite his face, and should be reevaluated in the near future.
Finally, we come to the new tradeskill system itself. While it is clearly faster and more to the point to omit subcombines, the requirements for each combine most likely need reviewing. This can be seen most acutely in the case of Tier 7 tradeskill writs. You are asked, as is always the case, to make ten items. To make ten armor items in Tier 7, that would require thirty roots, thirty leather, and *sixty* ore. That's just for one writ. To acquire these resources, one would have to spend either a significant amount of time harvesting, or a large sum of gold (in excess of a plat on most days) to purchase them from other players. This renders the writs all but pointless, as the time required to gather all of the components needed for one writ can be used completing four standard writs in Sinking Sands. If not the entire tradeskill system, then at least the interplay between this system and the writ system needs review.
The adventure aspect of Kingdom of Sky is clearly where it shines. The new zones are proving to be universally gorgeous, and very well designed both from artistic and utilitarian views. The transition from playing in DoF to playing in KoS is surprisingly smooth and easy to make. Having come from EverQuest Live, I am used to the concept that a new expansion is not even remotely accessible, even if you are of the right level, without top of the line gear. This was not the case with DoF, and it is even less the case with KoS. The Tenebrous Tangle is immediately accessible for anyone of the advertised minimum level (55), and the abundance of discovery point experience makes it a worthwhile trip for even lower level players, assuming due caution to avoid attention from the less hospitable denizens of these realms.
The gear drops to be found in KoS are very impressive, even those that come simply from solo mobs. SOE stated that they wanted to shift the importance of dropped items back into the limelight, and they are clearly doing that. This raises a lot of questions for crafters regarding the future viability of tradeskilling as a source of income, and personally, I have yet to sell a single piece of Tier 7 armor. This concerns me quite a bit, but at least spells, combat abilities, bags, boxes and furniture should remain in demand, even if equipment is not.
The Achievement system has also proven to be a source of both praise and controversy, typically in equal measure. While many of the abilities granted by these achievement paths are impressive, and will clearly take a character far above and beyond his/her previous capability, there are some that have left the community scratching its collective heads. A notable example would be the Guardian/Berserker Stamina line, in which the use of a buckler is required to take advantage of the new skills. Given the focus on maximizing mitigation and avoidance inherently placed on these classes, the existence of skills that demand a buckler be chosen over a tower shield seems grossly counterintuitive. There was also some confusion as to how the Achievements themselves would be earned. For example, on the official KoS sight, it lists leveling up as a means to earn "AXP". However, from my personal experience, achieving a new level does not increase your AXP at all.
The launch of KoS was indisputably strewn with caltrops, and controversy continues to swirl around a few select issues. However, in spite of my own occasional annoyance or head scratch, I find the expansion itself to be fantastic and well worth acquiring. The new zones are a visual banquet, and present honestly new tactical decisions based on the unique terrain, mob placement, and social nature of most mobs. The Achievement system lends a new depth and versatility to our characters, letting us be genuinely different from others of our class if we so choose. Finally, while one of those select points of controversy, the new tradeskill system's speed and simplicity will prove invaluable to people, such as myself, who are frequently called upon to produce large numbers of items by guild members.
If you haven't yet purchased Kingdom of Sky, please accept this advice. Be aware of the issues listed here, but do not be afraid of them. They are there, but the good far outweighs the bad, and much of the bad will likely be patched away in coming months. The launch was far from flawless, but the result is well worth the price of admission.
-Ktok Th'Rooks
Antonia Bayle Server
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by. Ktok Th'Rooks - 02/28/06
The launch of Kingdom of Sky, the second expansion for EverQuest II, has come and gone; preceded by an involved and lore laden event that involved many players on each server working toward a common goal. The question remains, however, how was the launch itself? Overall, what are the impressions coming out of game during and just after the launch?
While few in number, the negative aspects of the launch included a major bout with server lag, zone crashes and outages. It is a faire assessment that the recent server mergers were a major factor in why these issues were widely felt rather than, as has been the case in the past, localized to the Antonia Bayle server. Many servers experienced crashes and multiple lockouts and shutdowns through the first few days of the expansion as the developers worked diligently to apply software and hardware optimization fixes to alleviate the problem. By Friday, the issues were resolved, and the crashes stopped. However, for many hardcore guilds who strive to earn global firsts, the lost productivity was perhaps felt the most acutely as they fell behind their brethren on less affected servers.
Less severe, but also baring mentioning, were the misprinted CD keys included with many retail boxes. A great many of these keys were not recognized as being valid at first, and this caused much lamentation among the faithful early adopters. Thankfully, this issue was resolved within hours through a major show of CSR force. It's unfortunate that such an oversight would happen in the first place, but the speed at which it was tracked down and resolved deserves some kudos.
One of the main questions to arise out of all of this due to the zone crashes of the Tenebrous Tangle is this: Why are the Kingdom of Sky zones not instancing? Yes, they are very large zones, even when sliced into island-sized parcels, yet the Tangle is still perpetually over populated, often seeing well over one hundred people in the zone on the Antonia Bayle server where I play, and it is reputed to be the same on many other highly populated servers. This makes harvesting or performing quests to kill specific mobs (which may have lines three groups deep waiting for them) a hassle and nowhere within sight of the city limits of "Fun." It seems that adding instancing would be a simple fix to a lot of issues with the new zones, and the exact reasons for why it was not done linger in the minds of players not yet high enough to take shelter in the less populated, higher level zones.
Tradeskillers, also, have had some important talking points following the KoS release. First and foremost would be the complete re-envisioning of how the stats related to crafted equipment should be distributed. Up until this point, crafted items typically had stats, HP, power, and resists on them. Starting with KoS crafted items, this is no longer the case. For example, armor now carried three stats, HP, and power, but no resists. The resists are to be found on jeweler accessories, which in turn do not carry stats. Given a complete set of player crafted gear from KoS, it would, in theory, all even out in the end. However, the change in philosophy feels like switching horses midstream.
Another concern for tradeskillers is that the rare crafted items are no longer of "Legendary" quality. They are, instead, counted as "Treasured". This lead to a concern that they may not be able to land hits on epic mobs, to which SOE countered by making epic mobs effected by all lower quality weapons. This seems like an off choice for a resolution, since simply making KoS rare crafted items Legendary would have maintained an underpinning principle that has existed since launch. That principle being that if you want to melee a raid mob, you will most likely need a Legendary weapon or better. More than a few people feel that this move is rather like cutting off ones nose to spite his face, and should be reevaluated in the near future.
Finally, we come to the new tradeskill system itself. While it is clearly faster and more to the point to omit subcombines, the requirements for each combine most likely need reviewing. This can be seen most acutely in the case of Tier 7 tradeskill writs. You are asked, as is always the case, to make ten items. To make ten armor items in Tier 7, that would require thirty roots, thirty leather, and *sixty* ore. That's just for one writ. To acquire these resources, one would have to spend either a significant amount of time harvesting, or a large sum of gold (in excess of a plat on most days) to purchase them from other players. This renders the writs all but pointless, as the time required to gather all of the components needed for one writ can be used completing four standard writs in Sinking Sands. If not the entire tradeskill system, then at least the interplay between this system and the writ system needs review.
The adventure aspect of Kingdom of Sky is clearly where it shines. The new zones are proving to be universally gorgeous, and very well designed both from artistic and utilitarian views. The transition from playing in DoF to playing in KoS is surprisingly smooth and easy to make. Having come from EverQuest Live, I am used to the concept that a new expansion is not even remotely accessible, even if you are of the right level, without top of the line gear. This was not the case with DoF, and it is even less the case with KoS. The Tenebrous Tangle is immediately accessible for anyone of the advertised minimum level (55), and the abundance of discovery point experience makes it a worthwhile trip for even lower level players, assuming due caution to avoid attention from the less hospitable denizens of these realms.
The gear drops to be found in KoS are very impressive, even those that come simply from solo mobs. SOE stated that they wanted to shift the importance of dropped items back into the limelight, and they are clearly doing that. This raises a lot of questions for crafters regarding the future viability of tradeskilling as a source of income, and personally, I have yet to sell a single piece of Tier 7 armor. This concerns me quite a bit, but at least spells, combat abilities, bags, boxes and furniture should remain in demand, even if equipment is not.
The Achievement system has also proven to be a source of both praise and controversy, typically in equal measure. While many of the abilities granted by these achievement paths are impressive, and will clearly take a character far above and beyond his/her previous capability, there are some that have left the community scratching its collective heads. A notable example would be the Guardian/Berserker Stamina line, in which the use of a buckler is required to take advantage of the new skills. Given the focus on maximizing mitigation and avoidance inherently placed on these classes, the existence of skills that demand a buckler be chosen over a tower shield seems grossly counterintuitive. There was also some confusion as to how the Achievements themselves would be earned. For example, on the official KoS sight, it lists leveling up as a means to earn "AXP". However, from my personal experience, achieving a new level does not increase your AXP at all.
The launch of KoS was indisputably strewn with caltrops, and controversy continues to swirl around a few select issues. However, in spite of my own occasional annoyance or head scratch, I find the expansion itself to be fantastic and well worth acquiring. The new zones are a visual banquet, and present honestly new tactical decisions based on the unique terrain, mob placement, and social nature of most mobs. The Achievement system lends a new depth and versatility to our characters, letting us be genuinely different from others of our class if we so choose. Finally, while one of those select points of controversy, the new tradeskill system's speed and simplicity will prove invaluable to people, such as myself, who are frequently called upon to produce large numbers of items by guild members.
If you haven't yet purchased Kingdom of Sky, please accept this advice. Be aware of the issues listed here, but do not be afraid of them. They are there, but the good far outweighs the bad, and much of the bad will likely be patched away in coming months. The launch was far from flawless, but the result is well worth the price of admission.
-Ktok Th'Rooks
лл Back to Main Editorial Page
| Posted by Tamat at 2006-02-28 21:36:22 | |||
| Awesome read | |||
