Some interesting reading in the new Producer Letter that appeared late yesterday. Here it is in it's entirity for everyone to read
7/8/99
Welcome back!
Well, it's been an even busier than normal week and I'm pretty excited
about what we've accomplished.
First, as many of you have undoubtedly already noticed, we've
temporarily turned our Test server into a prototype PvP Teams server.
The twelve races of Norrath make up four teams, and a member of one
team can engage in player vs. player combat with any member of the
other teams. We are hoping this adds an exciting dynamic to the
EverQuest world for those of our players who enjoy the added danger of
player vs. player and believe that the creation of teams based on both
race and geographical location offers many great opportunities to
enhance Role Playing. Please keep in mind that both the code and rules
specific to the PvP Teams server are new and untested and will be kept
on the Test Server until we feel comfortable making them live. We don't
have an exact date as to when the official PvP Teams server will be
going online, but it should be within the next few weeks (and even then
we will consider the new server to be in Beta for a while, meaning rules
and features are still subject to significant change). In the meantime, I
encourage anyone curious about the Teams server to log onto the Test
Server (run testeverquest.exe in your EverQuest directory), check it out,
give us feedback and let us know about any bugs. Oh, and the PvP
Teams server will be called Tallon Zek, named after Rallos Zek's son,
the god of Strategy.
Another change you'll find on the Test Server are some upgrades to the
Warrior class. We've increased warriors' hit points, given them
additional magic resistance, and implemented critical hits above and
beyond those that already occur in combat. This brings up, of course,
the popular subject of class balance. In general we feel the classes in
EverQuest are pretty well balanced, and that they each offer strengths
and weaknesses the others don't have. Also, some are geared more for
parties, and some excel at solo play better than others. Now, that said,
because EverQuest is an ever-evolving dynamic game, the balance of
power often shifts here and there and we felt after talking to players and
discussing the issues extensively with both internal testers, GMs, and
members of the development team, that Warriors needed an upgrade to
make them more valuable in combat. We hope all of your Warriors out
there like the changes - let us know.
And no, we're not forgetting Rogues. Just to let everyone know, we also
feel that Rogues are in need of some tweaks and we are enhancing
their class by implementing the skills Apply Poison and Make Poison.
Apply Poison is technically done but in that it relies on Make Poison, we
haven't really advertised the fact. Make Poison will be a Rogue-only
Trade Skill and will involve combining toxic components in order to
make deadly poisons the Rogue can then apply to his weapons, making
them even more potent. The Game Designer responsible for Trade
Skills in general and Make Poison in particular is hard at work finishing
this implementation, which includes both creating an array of
components and poisons, as well as placing them in-game, whether
they be on NPCs or found in stores or elsewhere. I think it's safe to say
there are a few more weeks of work involved before you'll see both skills
in full swing on the Test Server.
One of the things I want to do with the Producer's Letter going forward is
feature some aspect of the game, whether it be a dungeon or outdoor
zone, and talk a bit about it every week, maybe giving out a minor game
hint or two (no, no major spoilers -- you guys know us better than that). I'll
start by talking about Rare Spawns which now populate many of the
outdoor areas (and we're adding more all the time). Rare Spawns in this
context are generally wandering NPCs with proper names that only
appear occasionally and typically are loaded with some pretty decent
treasure. A pretty well known example would be Lockjaw, a nasty and
rather large crocodile that appears occasionally in the Oasis of Mar.
Anyway, here's the hint: the more NPCs slain in the zone the greater the
chance that the Rares will appear. Also, different Rares will spawn in
different areas of a zone, especially the larger zones, so my suggestion
would be to keep moving while you hunt. That's it, it's pretty simple - and
I really think if more players try this method of hunting the more common
NPCs in an outdoor zone they'll find the Rares aren't quite as rare as
perhaps some people think they are.
Lastly, I wanted to announce that Verant will be at GenCon this year in
Milwaukee, August 5th thru 8th. We'll be showing both EverQuest: The
Ruins of Kunark™ (yep, that's the title of the Expansion) and our new
massively multiplayer real-time strategy called Sovereign™. I look
forward to seeing many of you there, and we're also hoping to have a
players' dinner during one of the evenings - I'll keep you posted.
I'll see you next week - there's lots more to talk about.
-Brad
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