EQ Stratics is pleased to bring you the House of Commons Chat Log with the Omens of War Expansion Team on August 24th, 2004.
<Brannoc> Welcome to another great House of Commons chat with the developers of Everquest! The topic will be Omens of War so please try to ask questions around it.
<Brannoc> Please send said questions to [QT]Brekkee or [QT]Gowel or [QT]PhroG - to do so type /query NICK and type in the window that pops up. Questions sent to myself or the developers will NOT make it into the lineup, so don't bother. Full logs of the chat will be up on http://eq.stratics.com shortly after the chat.
<Brannoc> So without further ado we'll start with a brief introduction from the developers, now would be a good time to send those questions.
<Rytan> Hi everyone, I'm Ryan Barker a senior game designer on EverQuest
<Rashere> Hey everyone. I'm Travis McGeathy, one of the game designers on EverQuest.
<Brenlo> Howdy, I am ALan Crosby also known as Brenlo
<Brenlo> and sometimes I go by Hey you
<Brannoc> *Melisande_Luclin* Are there things in OoW that will be for all levels other than the Task System?
<Brenlo> good question
<Brenlo> Rytan is thinking up an answer
<Rytan> The task system is the only content of the expansion that’s geared towards “ALL” levels but it’s very far reaching. The system has a lot of content that causal players are going to be able to enjoy at all levels.
<Brenlo> His keyboard is on fire
<Rytan> The new zones for the expansion are geared for levels 45-70 and generally accessible to all players. There’s only one keyed zone in the expansion. It’s a lot like Velious in that regard.
<Brannoc> *Subu* What are the plans for continued development of Everquest after OoW is released or will there be a major push for Everquest 2?
<Brenlo> We have already planned out the next 18 months of EQ development and have lots planned for the future. EQ and EQ2 will run concurrently and there are no plans to make anyone switch games. We want you to continue to enjoy EQ for years to come.
<Brannoc> (Please remember to focus your questions to the Omens of War expansion when sending to our QT's!)
<Brannoc> *Pumra* will a level 1 be able to use the task system?
<Rytan> You actually do have to be at least level 3 to get a task, but with the new tutorial you’re probably going to be level 5 before you even get out of the tutorial. So it’s really available to everyone almost immediately.
<Brannoc> *Fanon_EMarr* Will we continue to see rune-style spell turn-ins in OoW or will there be a return to the actual dropped spells? In addition, will any spells besides transit-relate be available from vendors at release?
<Rytan> The spell acquisition system for Omens is going to be a lot like the PoP system, except that you’ll get a different rune for each level set, and you won’t get repeats of the same spell when you turn them in. We don’t plan on having any non-travel spells on vendors at release.
<Brannoc> *Bigfan* Once OoW goes live, where should I go, or what should I do first?
<Brenlo> Where should you go? Whereever you want =) Provided you are of appropriate level. You could start on your epic 2. Do some tasks. Try some of the new tradeskill recipes or start working on the new AAs or levels. Personally, I will be doing a few tasks.
<Brannoc> *Grizumpy* In OoW is there going to be a wider variety of augments, for some focii that were left out of God, Currently there are only a few items that "Extend Dot Duration" and they are all in Planes of Power, Will OoW look to address the lack of certain focus/augs in GoD?
<Rytan> Augments as well as traditional gear will have the foci available on a number of new pieces of equipment. Omens should offer a greater variety of items available for any foci that you’re looking for.
<Brannoc> *Auricula* Will OoW have content soloable to level 70 for casual players who are not elemental-equipped. Will there be soloable instanced zones?
<Brenlo> We will not be adding any solo instanced features at this time. It is something that we are exploring but would take a tremendous amount of work and is not something we could do rapidly.
<Brannoc> *MrGnomer* How tough will Magi pets be compared to now and how will current focus work on them?
<Rytan> Mage pets are getting a solid boost from 66-70. There’s several mages in beta that are from the mage’s tower that have been working with me to help tune the pets for omens. This is also true of the necromancer, beastlord, shadowknight, shaman, and enchanter pets. Current foci will continue to work on the new pets.
<Brannoc> *Darcreaper_7th* how does the tasks work and what do you get out of it once finished a task
<Brenlo>Tasks put together a few elements that may require you to kill something, explore an area, or hail a certain NPC. Each time you will have a change of getting one of 3500 different tasks that result in an xp reward and perhaps some cash.
<Brannoc> *Guest36* How much did input from the players factor in to the content of OOW (AA's, zones, ect.)
<Rashere> Player input plays an important role in the design of any expansion. For Omens of War in particular, the feedback we received from players during previous expansions played a large role in the overall design of the expansion.
<Rytan> The players in beta and on test are one of our most valuable resources when creating and tuning content.
<Rytan> we've got lots of players that we're constantly talking to in regard to all aspects of the game.
<Brenlo>In fact, after gathering your feedback the team took many of the designs back to the drawing board and reworked much of the expansion. All thanks to you and your input.
<Brannoc> *SDKSnowboy* Several rumors have been afloat as to leveling from 65 to 70. Will advancing to level 70 be based purely off of standard XPing, and will there be any Requirements, AA or otherwise, to achieve levels.
<Rytan> Leveling from 65-70 will be exactly like leveling from 60-65. Traditional experience filling that little yellow and blue bar that you all know and love.
<Brannoc> *zabab* Are you going to give ranger mgb AA?
<Rashere> There are no plans at the moment to add Mass Group Buff to the Ranger AA list.
<Brenlo> Sorry Rangers
<Brannoc> *Sobewiz* will OOW offer "piggy back" into zones that some members or recruits may not be flagged for, much like the Elemental Planes ?
<Rytan> Yes there’s plans to allow recruits to be added more easily to the locked zone in Omens. I don’t want to go into detail as it’s not finalized yet, but it should be big improvement over what you had to do in the past to backflag players in PoP and Gates.
<Brannoc> *Give_monks_more* The cost of aa's in oow... will they be like PoP or GoD in terms of pricing? Most ppl consider GoD aa's overpriced, and will there be any refund of GoD over priced aa's?
<Rashere> The cost of AAs in Omens of War is not fixed at the moment, but I’m expecting them to be priced below the level of Gates AAs. I’ll be taking a look at the cost of Gates AAs in the near future and may make adjustments
<Brannoc> *LoD_Tsar* How much of Omens content will be instanced?
<Rytan> There’s instanced areas for each of the appropriate level ranges that Omens is set up to support for experience group content in addition to several static zones. There’s also a portion of the raid content that’s instanced as well, along with several static events/raids as well. Really it’s a mix of both types.
<Brenlo> Oh and Yes Rashere knows Rangers have MGB. It was his attempt at humor. . . =P
<Rashere>shoulda added a smiley
<Brannoc> *Bahlec* what will the max ft that a char can aquire be?
<Rashere> The maximum level of Flowing Thought in Omens is still under debate.
<Brannoc> *strumsor* Hello, all the bards in my guild, myself included, am curious about the new charms in OOW - they seem very powerful. Could you give us a little detail into what the max level for charm is? thanks
<Rytan> The final level limits for charm aren’t finalized yet, so I can’t tell you what they’ll be at release. They are in review and you can expect to see adjustments to those spells as beta progresses.
<Brannoc> *Rykzz* What can we expect in OoW for the casual gamer who might not be even close to maxing out his avatar?
<Brenlo> Casual gamers will get lots of benefits from the task system. However the content is also very open and available for levels 45 and up. So there will be lots of room for pick up groups and xp groups without the need to raid. Only one zone in the expansion even requires a flag, so head on over and enjoy the new content, new items and new AAs.
<Brannoc> *Nerfme* Are level 51 to 65 tasks going to be in game on release?
<Brenlo>We plan to at the moment but things can change. Watch for any announcements as we get closer to launch.
<Brannoc> *Wemerwena-Quell* based on the negative feedback in the EQforums on everquestlive, will the devs change the class AA's before OOW goes live?
<Rashere> The AA list on beta currently is a preliminary list that will be tweaked and tuned throughout the beta testing period.
<Rytan>Again there's a lot of feedback coming from prominent members of the player community that are influencing our decisions as beta progresses.
<Rytan> we're definitely not trying to make this expansion in a vacuum
<Brenlo> We also need to evaluate what is best for the game and all classes and not just one class. We do value your feedback on the AAs though and encourage you to continue to submit it. In a constructive manner please. =)
<Brannoc> *Guest80* Will there be any high level frogs added so us frog levelers can keep up the trend in OoW for getting to 70?
<Brenlo> Well, we really would like you to go out and see more of the world than just the Froggie areas. Besides, you must be tired of frog legs by now.
<Rytan> I play a froglock! >:(
<Brenlo> He has warts and everything
<Brannoc> *tearabite* Will tasks be only part of OoW. Or will the tasks require you to adventure all over Norrath?
<Rytan> The task system will involved zones all across Norrath. It should give you some new reasons to visit those old zones that you might have been to in a long time.
<Brannoc> *Saree3* How did you choose the name "Omens of war"? Previous expnasions carried the name of the continent mainly like Velious, Kunark & Luclin.
<Brenlo> Well we wanted to sort of take a new direction with the naming conventions. We think you will like the new approach. . .
<Brannoc> *Computer* How will the new bind/gate system work. It looks like there will be new secondary bind points for casters and melee will be able to gate. Is this correct?
<Rashere> The Secondary Recall AA will recall the player to a point that is set by use of an item called a Stone of Marking. The stone has the same limitations as normal bind affinity.
<Rashere> In addition, a general AA will allow any class to recall back to a friendly city. That point cannot be changed.
<Brannoc> *locvz* Can we expect to see more zones similar to Kod`Taz in terms of loot, tradeskills, augments and experience in Omens of War? If so, will it (or they) be locked? How many locked zones are planned for Omens of War?
<Brenlo> There will be only 1 zone that requires a flag. Only 1. The rest of the zones will be open and populated with all kinds of fun monsters with great items.
<Brannoc> *Garbar* Will we be able to BIND in OOW ? not being able to bind anywhere in GOD is a real pain, and everyone i play with dislikes it
<Rytan> Bindable locations will be less restrictive then they were in Gates. You won’t be able to bind everywhere, but there will be a few locations that you can bind in.
<Brannoc> *ramsly* hello
how will the epics compare to each other in the upcomming expantion and will the solo epic be worth the effort to get?<Brenlo> We have laid out templates for each epic quest to make sure that each is comparable. No one class will have it easier than another. The epics will also be just as valued from class to class for their stats. I am not sure what you mean by solo epic. If you mean the epic 1.5 then yes it will be worth getting and will be a natural part of the quest progression.
<Brannoc> *Naika* reguarding epic 2.0....will epic 1.0 be required in order to move on to 2.0? thanks
<Rashere> The original epics are not required in order to do the quests for the new ones, but possessing one of the original epics will allow you to skip some of the earlier steps.
<Brannoc> *Jolo* what level and class characters do the developers of Omens play?
<Brenlo> We all play different classes and levels. I, for expample, have a high level Magician, while Rytan has a Bard, Monk and Shaman. Rashere plays with his foot hair.
<Rashere>My erudite finds your halfling ways disturbing.
<Brannoc> *Sylvene* What are your favorite pizzas? Anyone do anchovies?
<Brenlo> I do not do anchovies. I like those new BBQ pizzas.
<Rashere> Why destroy such a wonderful creation by adding little fish?
<Rytan> Peperoni Mushroom for the win!
<Brannoc> For our final question of the night: *Sole9042* The new graphics in OoW look great! Will the new graphics effect anything other than the new content added?
<Brenlo> Well not yet is the short answer. Everything we build from now on will look that good or better. We are trying to figure out how to best get all of the other zones and monsters done. When we do, they would not be part of an expansion and would be available to all EQ players.
<Brannoc>(Ok I lied) *naiche* will there be new visible titles before your name associated with OoW AA gain?
<Rytan> We're working on plans to retrofit the old world areas with the new style art as time allows.
<Rytan> that was for the one above BTW >:)
<Rashere> Omens of War introduces a new feature that allows characters to earn titles through various means and then choose which one they wish to display at any time.
<Brannoc> And that's it for this one! Thanks for coming everyone, and be sure to join us next time around. If you didn't get your question in, try next time! The logs will be up on http://eq.stratics.com shortly.
<Brenlo> Thanks all for coming and chatting with us. Thanks to Stratics and their team for setting this up.
<Brenlo> Special thanks to Sylvene for her wit and charm =)
<Rytan> thanks for coming everyone!
