EQ 'Next'

[Mrbloodworth]

New Screens have been popping up about Landmark

[Threash]

That interior shot looks a lot like EQ2.

[Stormwaltz]

The story is that Dave Georgeson cobbled the whole thing together in about four hours. Massively yoinked the full set of pictures from his Twitter.

[Mrbloodworth]

That interior shot looks a lot like EQ2.

Eq2 made extensive use of tiled textures too.

[Simond]

The whinging elsewhere about it being too "WoW-like" is still vastly entertaining to me.

[Mrbloodworth]

I personally love the look.

[Hawkbit]

Me too, though I'm not sure about the superhero-like character design.  It's markedly better than EQ2 characters, though.

[Venkman]

The whinging elsewhere about it being too "WoW-like" is still vastly entertaining to me.

I dunno. I get more of a SWTOR vibe myself.

Though I suspect the wining about "WoW-like" is really just a proxy statement for "not trying to be photo realistic", and likely loudest from the contingent of people who've been playing WoW since 2005

[Margalis]

The color palette and some of the props look similar to WoW, but the environment doesn't really at all.

I've only seen two characters - the big cat-dude looks like a WoW character, but the human woman doesn't.

It's a pretty mixed bag stylistically.

[Numtini]

They are saying that they want to go against the grain and make the game group centric, which is honestly the first thing I've heard that sounded interesting to play rather than whiz bang tech demo.

[Merusk]

The color palette and some of the props look similar to WoW, but the environment doesn't really at all.

I've only seen two characters - the big cat-dude looks like a WoW character, but the human woman doesn't.

It's a pretty mixed bag stylistically.

Pretty much my assessment, too.  The Kerran and the Human look like they were done by different teams who never met-up.  Human is cartoony but still realistic enough.  The Kerran, however, looks like he's out of some entirely different game or Saturday morning cartoon from the late 80s. Far too smooth and oddly proportioned all-over.  The fangs, eyes and snout in particular look like some junior modeler was given the task and nobody ever revisited it.

[Stormwaltz]

I hope you enjoy learning how to use building tools with a live audience, because unlike every other MMG with content building tools, EQ Next has decided that everything you do is visible to everyone, anytime.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/10/22/everquest-next-landmark-to-focus-on-public-building-with-possibl/

[Paelos]

The playerbase also expressed concern about how to keep their player studio projects a secret so that other players can't rip off their ideas.

That's pretty paranoid. Is there an advantage to carbon copying people's ideas?

[Sky]

They are saying that they want to go against the grain and make the game group centric, which is honestly the first thing I've heard that sounded interesting to play rather than whiz bang tech demo.

Ah, I'm out, then.

Paelos; as they're monetizing the player studio, yes. There are a ton of tricks you can do with something like minecraft, but backwards engineering something is still pretty time-intensive. Being able to sit and watch someone build it, take notes, then go build your own version and undercut them in the market.

Also, if it took 4 hours to build that basic keep, something is wrong. Something like that would take minutes to slap together in minecraft.

[Fordel]

Maybe in creative mode!

[Paelos]

So do the buildings do anything or is this just for aesthetics? Will there be a market to pay someone to build your house for you?

[Merusk]

So do the buildings do anything or is this just for aesthetics? Will there be a market to pay someone to build your house for you?

No and Yes.  Sky covered the monetization of the player studio.. but anyone who thought this would be a 2nd or primary source of income should focus those skills on something more worthwhile, probably.  Trying to get paid for content creation in the digital age is a fools errand.

[palmer_eldritch]

So do the buildings do anything or is this just for aesthetics? Will there be a market to pay someone to build your house for you?

They haven't revealed details of housing but from what they've hinted, the answer seems to be yes. The two methods of getting designs from Landmark to the real game seem to be a) if the devs choose to use in the gameworld it or b) if someone uses your house design for their house.

Although I dunno if you can commission someone to build your house specifically or if the best designs just get exported from Landmark into some sort of EQ Next marketplace.

[Paelos]

Will it just be houses, or can I build say, a soccer field inside a fortress?

[Sky]

Maybe a giant monkey with lava hands.

[palmer_eldritch]

Will it just be houses, or can I build say, a soccer field inside a fortress?

Don't know.

I'd guess that as long as it's vaguely like a home (or a guild hall - they've mentioned those too) then you can do it, because otherwise it's a waste of what seems like a cool feature of the game, but they haven't really said.

[Paelos]

So no giant monkey with lava hands then.

Well. 

[tazelbain]

Pretty sure that's on the table, but it depending on were your plot of land is, you could have restrictions. If they are talking about sci-fi areas in the world, I don't see how your thing is out of bounds.

[palmer_eldritch]

Yes but I think Paelos and I are talking about assets which are going to be bought into EQ Next, which is where they will actually have a use beyond just looking interesting.

[Polysorbate80]

I'm thinking a place could be found for said ginormous flaming monkey, you just need the proper ambience.  After all, EQ has analogues for Godzilla and King Kong tucked away on islands out in the middle of the ocean as it is.

[Venkman]

Paelos; as they're monetizing the player studio, yes. There are a ton of tricks you can do with something like minecraft, but backwards engineering something is still pretty time-intensive. Being able to sit and watch someone build it, take notes, then go build your own version and undercut them in the market.

Second Life.

[Stormwaltz]

My personal bugaboo about this is that it will feel like writing a novel while someone hangs over your shoulder and reads each word aloud as you type it.

I'd say, "like building a quest while your team lead watches your screen and bluntly critiques," but I'd guess that fewer people have experienced that...

[Mrbloodworth]

I Seriously doubt they will be watching, like they will hear about some cool thing someone made and go look and or contact.

[Sky]

I'd say, "like building a quest while your team lead watches your screen and bluntly critiques," but I'd guess that fewer people have experienced that...

That sounds like a firm understanding of how creatives function best.

[Bzalthek]

So no giant monkey with lava hands then.

Well. 

I don't see why not.  Temple's need odd statues rife with metaphorical hoojoo.

The Monkey symbolizes the endless nature of the universe... or some shit.

[Venkman]

Also, if it took 4 hours to build that basic keep, something is wrong. Something like that would take minutes to slap together in minecraft.

If it was 4 hours, it could have been they were designing as they went. Executing it should have been minutes. But I've spent hours building something in MC because half the time was destroying things I didn't like :)

Also depends on the toolset. SL's wasn't intuitive by any stretch for example. MC is easy per se, but as you know, it's all like legos. It's a lot easier with MCedit, but that's cheating.

All of which goes back to your point about how they're monetizing. Based purely on a few videos, I assume this'll be like Spore: relatively easy to use tools that are kinda constrained by nature so it's not like full Maya, but with enough flexibility to do cool stuff, with a public storefront where users can vote on things they like, buy things they love, and SOE can run contests to pick the recurring cream of the crop (and hopefully turn around and hire up or put on retainer the really good talent).

[palmer_eldritch]

You can now pay to get a spot in the EQ Next Landmark beta or alpha if you are so minded: http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/11/11/everquest-next-landmark-founders-packs-alpha-announced/

NB it does appear to be for Landmark only.

[Bzalthek]

So we can shell out cash to get in the alpha/beta of what is essentially the trial run of the alpha/beta of EQNext...

They're not even trying to dress it up anymore.

[Falconeer]

It's kind of pointless considering it is going to be a free to play game and you don't even get the usual "cash" that has some kind of importance in these games. In Planetside 2 you got cash, in MechWarrior you got cash, in Smite you got all heroes unlocked, and so on. Here, all you really buy other than cosmetics is some items that should give you a boost but will probably be negligible, and alpha-beta access. Take the 60$ pack. On top of the alpha access what you really get it pretty much the crap you'd get in any collector edition, and we all know those items are always useless.

EDIT:

Oh god, echoes of UO...  

[Paelos]

Wait, so there will be a prioritized gold rush?