Trade skills and the next expansion

[Calabar]

Below is a link to a GameSpy article about the next EQ expansion; Lost Dungeons of Norrath. Granted, there is little direct information about what’s in store for trade skills, but the little tidbits of information that are dangled in front of our faces is quite intriguing. It sounds like some of the ideas being worked on for EQII are being tested a bit early.

http://www.gamespy.com/interviews/june03/eqldonpc/

[Woodeckt]

Dang sounds good to me looking forward to it.

[Tinile]

Sounds like the old Realm dungeons to me, if any of you played Realm back in the day. Each group of 6 would get their own dungeon and be ported in. You walk through the dungeon and kill everything in it to get to the "boss" mob. Never any respawns in your dungeon. No one can KS you or ninja you, but no one else can help you if you need it either. If you wanted to get more exp/loot you had to exit the dungeon and start over.

[Aandaie]

It sounds horribly awful to me. From what he says it sounds like you will NEED a party of 5 to enter an instanced dungeon (hmm wonder if some person on the team liked that show...)

I just don't have the time to group much anymore, let alone get 4 other people. Sounds like I should not even buy this. In fact it sounds like I should give myself the boot because I don't like the 'have to group' direction this game is going in.

[Angelsyn]

The idea that "you must group" doesn't bother me alot... even if I don't have alot of playing time (too many hobbies!).

I don't like...

1) You can't go on an "adventure/quest/task" without a group of 5 or 6 only.

2) You (seemingly) can't progress just part of the way through a dungeon in one sitting, then come back and finish it the next day.

3) You (seemingly) are totally screwed if half your party goes link-dead in the middle of a tough fight and can't get back right away... First the MoBs kill you, then they kill the rest of your party as they come back from being link-dead. And you can't get a helpful Necro/SK to summon corpses, unless you had one in your group to start with!

4) GM/Guide help (for example, if you encounter a bug or get stuck in a wall or something) will probably be a nightmare in these "instanced" dungeons.

5) "objects that break"

6) "we already have plans for another expansion, though the details on that one aren't ready for release yet." Could we please get some of the broken things & unfinished things fixed/finished first? (Want an example? How about the Ceremonial Wedding Sword?)

[Zephaus]

There will be new trade skill items that can be found in the Lost Dungeons.

I'm not holding my breath. They say this everytime there's a new expansion. If memory serves, there were supposed to be player made charms in LoY. It took them months after Luclin to finally introduce a large number of new tradeskill recipes (such as PotC).

If there's any major tweak to tradeskills, I'll be shocked.

[Ngreth Thergn]

6) "we already have plans for another expansion, though the details on that one aren't ready for release yet." Could we please get some of the broken things & unfinished things fixed/finished first? (Want an example? How about the Ceremonial Wedding Sword?)

Um... what is wrong with this?

Ceremonial Wedding Sword
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY
STR: +5 DEX: +3 STA: +3 AGI: +3
SV MAGIC: +6
WT: 5.0 Size: MEDIUM
Class: WAR PAL RNG SHD BRD ROG
Race: ALL


If you mean that it has no attack value...

um... it is Ceremonial...

Many ceremonial weapons were made of gold or other VERY soft metals that if you were silly enough to use it as a weapon it would not be much worse than hitting somone with a hickory stick... sure it hurts... but not much more than that. Against somoene in armor you would do NOTHING... even leather armor... AND you have ruined a perfectly prety item.

Ceremonial armor was so soft or thin you could punch a person with bare hands and hurt the person wearing the armor as much as you hurt your hand.

This is meant as a FLUF item, to tease with the stats... but to have no use.

Now don't go saying the ceremonial dagger has an attack value... well um... that was used in a VERY different ceremony... no need to go into details there.

the only thing I MIGHT see is to add secondary slot to it...

Or is this used in some quest that I don't know about.

[kaledin]

Views on the new expansion

I don't like...

1) You can't go on an "adventure/quest/task" without a group of 5 or 6 only.

2) You (seemingly) can't progress just part of the way through a dungeon in one sitting, then come back and finish it the next day.

Could be a problem, but if you plan accordingly, it shouldn't be an extremely difficult one... I know in my household we have between 3 and 5 people playing at a time so a group is never an issue. we just may need an extra person or two... but on a limited time frame I could see how this could be a problem.

3) You (seemingly) are totally screwed if half your party goes link-dead in the middle of a tough fight and can't get back right away... First the MoBs kill you, then they kill the rest of your party as they come back from being link-dead. And you can't get a helpful Necro/SK to summon corpses, unless you had one in your group to start with!

Probably not, because with the Graveyards in PoP they solved that kind of issue, thus requiring less struggle with corpseruns. If they implement a kind of Graveyard in the dungeons with this expansion then there will be fewer problems.

4) GM/Guide help (for example, if you encounter a bug or get stuck in a wall or something) will probably be a nightmare in these "instanced" dungeons.

I could see this being a potential issue, but probably not as bad as it could be.

5) "objects that break"

Awwwww.... C'mon... EQ has needed more environmental interaction in it. one of the things I have always wanted in EQ was the ability to walk around and open a chest and find something randomly cool in it. Or to be able to break open a door instead of having to use a key. Or bust open a wardrobe and find a stash of money. That way you have a chance of making a little cash and not have to struggle overly hard.

I think this has been a long time missing. Imagine you walk up to a chest and try to open it, and Blam! a trap goes off... shoulda had that rogue along... Of course after its opened, you look inside and come across a bag of money and, lo and behold, a Fine Steel Breastplate. Time to start divying up the loot...


===================================

I think over all this has been a long needed expansion. And if SoE can pull it off the right way, then it may end up being one of the more popular adventuring choices. I like the idea of being able to the old fashioned Dungeon Crawl, and having a sense of achievement at the end. I hate having to go to a zone and having to Shout "CAMP CHECK!" Every so often just so I might get a chance at camping a spawn location repeatedly for mind numbing hours on end.
but thats me.

Just my 2cp!

Kaledin Stoneforge
51 Paladin of the Underfoot
Povar
Master Blacksmith 188
Master Drunkard 198
Fisherman of Dubious talent 53

There is no bond of blood greater than the bond of soldiers in combat.

[Kcalehc]

There would also need to be some faction implications if you could break open chests, doors etc. Otherwise it'd be a free for all looting session in every town...

[Sethlic]

/sigh
it would be cool if they had some 1, to 3 person encounters

[Jireg]

/sigh
it would be cool if they had some 1, to 3 person encounters

Yes! Great idea! Hail an NPC and say "I am ready for the trial". NPC notes your class then takes you off to a dungeon specifically designed for your class to solo though. Requiring you to play your character to the max and use most of your unique to class abilities.

For 2-3 person encounters, slightly larger dungeons, but tuned to the CLASSES, not the levels or AA's of the group.

[Cantatus]

"objects that break"

Does this game really need more things that break?

6) "we already have plans for another expansion, though the details on that one aren't ready for release yet." Could we please get some of the broken things & unfinished things fixed/finished first?

Have to agree on this one. Every single time they announce an expansion we try to remind them of the things that were never finished in previous ones. For instance, there are still newbie quests for Iksar that haven't been finished. I'm glad they're thinking ahead and planning for the future, but they should be also looking to the past and finishing up content. I'm betting though that LDoN is going to add a lot of new quests and stuff in the original cities (poor Iksar).

It sounds horribly awful to me. From what he says it sounds like you will NEED a party of 5 to enter an instanced dungeon (hmm wonder if some person on the team liked that show...)

I think one thing people are reading too much into is where they say that the "main focus" of LDoN will be these dungeons. No where in it does it say that all the dungeons in the expansion will be like this. Sony likes for their expansions to appeal to everyone and I'm willing there will be a few places for soloers and a few places for raiders. If not, there are already tons of zones to your disposal.

2) You (seemingly) can't progress just part of the way through a dungeon in one sitting, then come back and finish it the next day.

Well, you can't really do this nowadays either. You can't log off in the middle of Howling Stons and expect to be able to progress from the same spot. The important thing though is that you should be able to log off in the middle of these things and start them whenever you want.

If memory serves, there were supposed to be player made charms in LoY. It took them months after Luclin to finally introduce a large number of new tradeskill recipes (such as PotC).

Actually the player made charms was a lot of speculation and hope. Unfortunately we didn't see them (yet). Luclin didn't add many new tradeskill items right off the bat, but they did get some of them in pretty fast (esp. tailoring). Frizznik is doing a good job now of adding stuff in. I'm sort of looking forward to seeing what he'll do in LDoN since that'll be the first full expansion that he'll be doing tradeskills in.

Probably not, because with the Graveyards in PoP they solved that kind of issue, thus requiring less struggle with corpseruns.

Bleh, I hope there aren't graveyards in LDoN. I'm probably one of the few people that don't like them. They just took a lot of the risk involved in things away.

Yes! Great idea! Hail an NPC and say "I am ready for the trial". NPC notes your class then takes you off to a dungeon specifically designed for your class to solo though. Requiring you to play your character to the max and use most of your unique to class abilities.

/agree. I always thought it'd be cool if there was a zone you could go train in. It'd be great with instancing. Each person could request a different trial and then gain things like new AA skills to train, new spells, etc. It'd probably cause too many instances for the server to handle though.

---

The one thing I hope they do in this expansion is make dungeons where you can bring 2 groups that can compete against each other. It'd be cool to have a dungeon instanced and have to clear to the center. Whoever gets there first gets the loot. Yeah, there is competition in the game now, but I'd love for it to be friendly competition with my friends and guild.

[Gargazon]

I personally LOVE the idea of this expansion. Seriously. If you have trouble getting 5 people together you might not be playing the right game. The problems I have had in this game mostly revolve around the only descent loot being on mobs you need 50+ people to kill, and that loot going to the GL and officers, and then their bf/gfs then their 2nd and third cousins, then ebay. This wouldn't be too terrible, but you need that type of loot to be able to play effectively at the upper levels.

I am also thrilled that there will be no ksing, spawn stealing, training, camp checks, etc. This expansion, if anything, is about 4 years late. This is of course assuming (and you know what they say about assumptions) that the RvR is going to be descent, there is some way to recover your corpse when you die, pathing issues aren't severly retarded, etc.

Anyhow, looking forward to this. I should note as well that this has been refered to on other boards as the "guild buster" expansion. I don't believe that for a minute, but I think it's amusing.

[Delandril]

This post is living proof that no matter what SOE does, someone will find something to complain about.

[Lilosh]

If I can't find five people, I am playing the wrong game?


Exsqueeze me?
Baking powder?

To this day, my guild of 100+ people refuses to join me in Nadox or Dulak, or Torg more then once in the past two months.

I don't live in a house with 4 other people.

I one box.

And I am a druid under level 58, so no group in a 7 zone radius wants me.

So please, don't inform me that I am playing the wrong game. It might *JUST* be possible that requiring me to scrounge up 4 other people who want to go to another zone might be a bad idea because IT'S NOT ALWAYS POSSIBLE.


-Lilosh