EQ 'Next'

[MrHat]

I don't understand how providing "nearly" all F2P purchases that can also be obtained through gameplay is different or good guys?

[Falconeer]

I think the reasoning is that, even if this game is not competitive, anything that is "pay2win" is bad -EVIL RMT-, while anything that is "pay2gofaster" is supposed to be -GOOD RMT-. I read that statement as: "in our game real money will only allow you to get somewhere faster, but there won't be anything you can't get anyway just by playing the game for free".

[Nyght]

I think the reasoning is that, even if this game is not competitive, anything that is "pay2win" is bad -EVIL RMT-, while anything that is "pay2gofaster" is supposed to be -GOOD RMT-. I read that statement as: "in our game real money will only allow you to get somewhere faster, but there won't be anything you can't get anyway just by playing the game for free" if you put in thousands of hours.

fixed

[Falconeer]

Yeah, absolutely. That said, I personally think it's an OK method. And I am not even referring to EQ Landmark since we don't know if that is what they will go with, but this is the trend recently and I like it.

I mean, these games are not made for free. They cost money to make and maintain. And still you get to play them for free if you want, and have access to everything. Sure, you have a slow-ass mule that covers a hundred miles in two days instead than a car ride that would take two hours? Big deal! It is FREE. Would you rather walk?

[Nyght]

I am not really complaining although I am not so enamored by this approach, as long as it is transparently so and not buried beneath a dung hill of marketing BS.

[Numtini]

I have no idea how Rift is doing in the $$, but the balance between buying gear and earning it is pretty reasonable. I'm a few hundred HP short for joining my guild on the 10 man raids and need one more piece of "expert" gear. I can either do the solo chronicle for the next week, I can do two or three expert dungeons, or I can cough up -- it's like $5. I think they do a great job with the balancing. It doesn't feel like its wretched misery to earn gear and that also means that it doesn't feel like a cheat to buy it because you're not avoiding that much "grind" and it's not a whole lot of money in the first place. I've just been doing the daily chronicle and jumping into dungeons, but if I'm online and they're like "Hey Kathy, we need one more for..." I'm probably going to fork over $5 to hop into it.

SOE isn't Trion though and while I think they're earning back a lot of community goodwill so far with Landmark, but they have a long history of fucking up F2P models. They're the kind of company where you worry someone is going to issue an edict to take 2 hours to chop a tree unless you buy the $50 axe.

[MrHat]

I think the reasoning is that, even if this game is not competitive, anything that is "pay2win" is bad -EVIL RMT-, while anything that is "pay2gofaster" is supposed to be -GOOD RMT-. I read that statement as: "in our game real money will only allow you to get somewhere faster, but there won't be anything you can't get anyway just by playing the game for free" if you put in thousands of hours.

fixed

Exhibit A: Dungeon Keeper (iOS)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpdoBwezFVA

[Threash]

It looks like the entire map is covered in claims, can you just drop another one on top of them?

[Wasted]

I can't even get the game to load properly, can't get past character create/server log-in.  I'll wait a few more days or so but will probably get a refund, don't know why I thought I needed to be an early adopter in this shit.

[Numtini]

It looks like the entire map is covered in claims, can you just drop another one on top of them?

No, you have your little claim and then there's a bit of space between your claim and where the closest one can be.

There's two things going on. First, it is full. Second, while there are probably two or three possible places on each island, if you port to a different island, your map will show all the claims on that island and on all islands you've been on. So you need to log out and back in.

Supposedly a new server just went online and two more are on the way. If you believe twitter.

[Falconeer]

I just logged in and found myself on Pingo (it's the name of an island on the Courage server). There's definitely some space to place a claim along the edges. If you can't find anything better go there.
Also, no queues right now and the game is working fine so I am sorry for your issues Wasted, I'd say that's typical unoptimized alpha bullshit.

[Wasted]

I'm trying to be patient and diligent and search for answers on the forums etc but in a normal Alpha I wouldn't have paid $100 for the privilege of this headache.  I've submitted a ticket so I'll probably judge how much more effort I put in by how they respond.  I seems to be a problem with my video card as much as I can see, its having all sorts of problems with the game and I can't even change the resolution or move from windowed to full screen without the client crashing.

[palmer_eldritch]

- Craft the grapping hook as soon as you can. You equip it on your paperdoll and press E to shoot out a grappling hook and zip around. The range is pretty short on the starter bronze one, but if you pick and direction and sort of drag yourself along the ground with it, it helps travel speed.

This is really good advice.

[Falconeer]

This is my piece of land. Hard not to feel proud about it. If anything, this game wins (and will win) because it makes you feel incredibly attached to your plot and whatever you'll be able to build on it. It's UO+SWG plus the digging that didn't exist there. Every aspect of it, in my opinion, so far is a lot of fun. And the sense of achievement that comes with customizing your little corner of the world is, well, huge.

I also tried to show the size of the islands and how your stuff shows up in the general map for everyone to see, even if they are not close to where you are.

[Simond]

Well crap now I want to play Minecraft some more.

[Signe]

Did you move plots?  I thought you were more north than that.  Right now my plot is nearly straight north and a wee bit east on Courage- Drift, because my first plot disappeared and when I went back to it someone had already taken it)  and has a bit of a mountain side and some trees and rocks.  It's pretty close to lots of trees though but I seem to be mostly a dirt farmer.  I had to take a screenshot so that I'd be able to locate it again... lets see if that works.  Finding a plot was much easier this time because the Drift island was much less crowded.  I still don't see how groups or friends will be able to have their plots next to each other or even on the same island.  It just doesn't seem to be made for that.  At least not yet.  We'll have to be quick or after the wipe or we'll all end up with dirt farms!  The performance of the game is still pretty crap but way less crappier than yesterday.  Everyone isn't just blue skin and silver hair anymore but it's very very laggy even when it says it's not.  Sometimes I dig dirt and it shows up a couple seconds later.  My kit is over the recommended requirements and when I get a proper desktop it'll be even better.  I hope.  I'm sure it'll keep improving now though, too.  

[Falconeer]

I am at the extreme northeast of Crest, but I turned the map around to take the screenshot. I wanna visit your plot. Too bad there's no social tools at all yet.

[Venkman]

Well crap now I want to play Minecraft some more.

heh, yea, when my impulse purchase of this was foiled, I went to my MC server and finished my youngests' version of Ana's castle from Frozen, complete with toggle-able ice rink

But dammit if Falc's screenshots don't want me to hit my head against the wall try and buy this alpha again. And dammit further that being unable to buy a freakin' alpha isn't also making me channel all types of "it was much worse in the old days" feelings. Heck, this looks playable at least. Unlike SWG on launch day, or AO on launch month, amirite? 

[Numtini]

For those of you wanting to camp land, new server coming online tonight. Probably in about an hour when the downtime is over.

[Margalis]

My understanding of Minecraft is that a lot of people end up playing in creative mode. I wonder what that means for something that needs to stay gamey?

[Felmega]

According to Davey G's twitter account:

"Omg. Found issue. Long explanation. Will post on forums soon." - 8:14 pm

[Rendakor]

My understanding of Minecraft is that a lot of people end up playing in creative mode. I wonder what that means for something that needs to stay gamey?

I've played several hundreds of hours of Minecraft and never once touched creative mode.

[Bzalthek]

There are many different subgroups.  You have the creative types, the recreative types (let's build a scale model of...), the survivalists, the hardcore survivalists, the communal builders, the "look at my stuff" multiplayer only type, the mod hunters, etc etc.  It should also be noted that streamers for minecraft (and there are many successful ones) almost never do creative.

As for landmark; I have an iron pick!  I haven't been so excited for a noobie item since langseax in EQ to fight off those damn wandering ghouls.

[Falconeer]

Landmark is going to be 64 bit only.

Hey folks,

It's just not realistic for us to pursue 32-bit OS any longer.

Landmark (and EQN) will be 64-bit OS games *only*.

If your machine is a 32-bit OS and you purchased a Founder's Pack, then you only have two options:
a) Upgrade
b) Request a refund from Customer Service

We're sorry, but it's just not technically feasible for us to pursue 32-bit OS any longer. We apologize for the disappointment should you choose to not upgrade.

[Malakili]

I also tried to show the size of the islands and how your stuff shows up in the general map for everyone to see, even if they are not close to where you are.

Looking at the map pictures in there it seems like the "world" or "island" or "area" or whatever they are called you are in is a giant cube.  Can you dig all the way to the bottom of it, hollow out tunnel systems, etc?

[Falconeer]

They said they look like cubes now but since they realy want those to be islands they will eventually get some less ridiculous shape. That said, you can dig vrazy deep in it, they are talking about putting some rare resources beyond the 100m deep mark. The disappointing part though, as noted before, is that the land starts healing itself after about 30 miuntes, so when you are digging tunnels and all, the path behind you begins to fill up eventually. I can't see how they could work around it, considering the same space and resources are shared by thousands of people if the land didn't heal there would be nothing left to mine in a couple of days, but it is still quite sad. Especially because tunneling is a real pleasure, the way the caves look and twist while you are at it is so damn satisfying.

Good thing they announced underground biomes and other things to dig for and find deep under the surface.

In the meantime, a post on the State of the Alpha announcing drastic changes to the claim interface to make it super easy to spot available land.

[Malakili]

The disappointing part though, as noted before, is that the land starts healing itself after about 30 miuntes, so when you are digging tunnels and all, the path behind you begins to fill up eventually.

What about on your own plot?

[Falconeer]

On your own plot things stay the way you make them so yes the answer is yes you can build underground and make as many tunnels or anything you want, underground chambers, dungeons, you name it. The freedom you have on your own plot is amazing. The only problem is that your plot is a parallelepiped roughly 60 meters high (200 feet). When you claim a piece of land you place the "cube" not just somewhere on the ground, but you also decide its vertical and bottom border, so you can put it mostly underground, mostly overground and so on.

So, if for example you decide to place your claim with 90% of its shape underground, you still wouldn't be able to go build permanent structures deeper than 180 feet. (The 200 feet height is my estimation, no idea if that is accurate).

[palmer_eldritch]

I also tried to show the size of the islands and how your stuff shows up in the general map for everyone to see, even if they are not close to where you are.

Looking at the map pictures in there it seems like the "world" or "island" or "area" or whatever they are called you are in is a giant cube.  Can you dig all the way to the bottom of it, hollow out tunnel systems, etc?

The long term aim also is that the higher-tier minerals will be down far below the earth. You'll also have tools which allow you to dig down far more quickly than pickaxes do (but unlike pickaxes, they won't actually collect minerals for you - they just make a hole quickly).

At the moment you have tier 1 islands with tier 1 minerals near the surface, tier 2 islands with tier 2 minerals near the surface etc. Sometimes the minerals are below ground but not by more than maybe 25 feet I guess (I'm guessing that by assuming my character is about 6 feet tall).

But eventually you'll get one type of island with tier 1 minerals on the surface, tier 2 minerals below that, tier 3 minerals deep below and so on.

So basically yes, I think the aim is to make you dig down a long way. Don't know if it will be all the way to the bottom, but a long long way. Although any holes you make will "heal" after 30 mins if they are not on your plot (and they won't be on your plot if you dig down far enough even if you start on it, because your plot is limited in depth).

[Malakili]

Ok, thanks.  I'm a big fan of dwarfy structures, so the idea of having a few little windows/rooms peaking out of a mountain and then an underground fortress is appealing to me.

I'm mostly still in the "I should fire up Minecraft" camp, but the screenshots you posted were at least intriguing.

[palmer_eldritch]

While I'm enjoying landmark a lot, what excites me more is the prospect of much of this system being incorporated into a full-blown MMO, which seems to be the intention with EQ Next. You'll have a crafting system where, instead of hacking away at clumps of rock handily placed all over the map to gain materials, you have to dig deep underground to find the emeralds you need to make your magic thingabobs - but with a chance of stumbling across some sort of dynamically spawned dungeon or lair on the way.

[Wizgar]

I haven't been following this. What's to stop people from strip-mining the world hollow eventually?

[Merusk]

I haven't been following this. What's to stop people from strip-mining the world hollow eventually?

Things heal behind you after ~20 minutes.

[kaid]

They said they look like cubes now but since they realy want those to be islands they will eventually get some less ridiculous shape. That said, you can dig vrazy deep in it, they are talking about putting some rare resources beyond the 100m deep mark. The disappointing part though, as noted before, is that the land starts healing itself after about 30 miuntes, so when you are digging tunnels and all, the path behind you begins to fill up eventually. I can't see how they could work around it, considering the same space and resources are shared by thousands of people if the land didn't heal there would be nothing left to mine in a couple of days, but it is still quite sad. Especially because tunneling is a real pleasure, the way the caves look and twist while you are at it is so damn satisfying.

Good thing they announced underground biomes and other things to dig for and find deep under the surface.

In the meantime, a post on the State of the Alpha announcing drastic changes to the claim interface to make it super easy to spot available land.

Well there are two ways. First I am not sure if the pulveriser is already in game or not but apparently there is a tool for rapid tunneling/excavating with the downside it does not harvest materials as it goes. So with these penetrating deep underground should be much quicker and easier. Also I am not sure if this will maintain into live but there is a reset to ground level option so really getting deep underground at least currently is trivially easy to get back to the surface from. Me and a friend spent 30 minutes digging a hole straight down we passed about 250 meters deep before we stopped.

[Numtini]

This might be obvious, but the grappling hook also grapples and makes it far easier to do mountainside mining, which seems to yield more tin and presumably more blue metals in higher tiers.

They seem to be deleting the penises, but I"ve seen a variety of other trash builds. By the weekend, I'm guessing the place will be total trailer park.