A Re-assessment of EQL, 3 weeks after launch.

[Defo]

As a continuation from my last post:

The Good:

-The multiclass system is still very addictive. I have tried different combos, and levelling each up alongside upgrading their spells is fun. "Bard / SK / Wizard works well, I wonder how Bard / Monk / Wizard works. Oh, pretty good! Now I'll try Bard / Monk/ Necro!" <--- Lots of that, which is fun.

-Instancing is still great, and I know P99 playerbase is against instancing (for good reason, as it's not classic) - but it's a good way to jump into a dungeon and AFK for an indeterminate amount of time as real-life things come up, knowing that you don't have to poopsock an exp camp or item camp.

-Overall, it's a decent fascimille of EverQuest to enjoy if you're like me and can maybe carve out 6 hours total per week to play.

The Bad:

-Although multiclassing is fun because it allows you many options, re-visiting the same zones over and over again to level each class gets tedious and boring. There have been days where I've had an hour to myself to grind some exp, and after 20 minutes I get bored and wind up exiting the game and doing something else completely.

-Still having the same problem when trying to group: Healers don't heal. Enchanters dont mez, etc. It's just faceroll through dungeons with alot of players, and it gets frustrating when you die and you are forced to stare at your corpse until you can release and get back to zoneline.

-Gear makes you overpowered, in a way that's not entirely fun. The power fantasy aspect strikes again. I was level 36, in the Ghoul Lord's room in LGuk and fighting the Lord and his two bodyguards at the same time, levels 47, 42 and 41. It wasn't a difficult encounter. I have 3k HP and enough mana to heal myself 4x over. Granted: more challenging zones like raid zones might bring more fun - but I haven't got there yet. Still only have 1 combo over level 40.

The Ugly:

-/sigh. This is what makes me think I am aging out of being a gamer. The community, on the whole, kind of sucks. If you think P99 UN is bad(fun): check out the EQL Discord general-discussion. If there are any troll-minded folks here, you will have plenty of fun goading the folks in that Discord.

Every day, there are more complaints about niche feedback (example: Rename gypsys in Mistmoore to something "not racist", or "I have 1k AA and all classes to level 50 after 3 weeks and let me tell you this game is unfinished"). For every second spent in the Discord, 20 seconds is removed from the end of your life. It is really soul-crushing to see that modern gamers believe that games should be tailor-made to their specific wants and needs.

The Community Managers and mods of the Discord are also in over their heads. They have a team of a handful of mods (like 3-4) moderating a Discord with 60,000 people. They have banned clown / poop / eggplant emojis. They ban people from the Discord for starting arguments, or providing not-so-swell feedback. I feel for them, because they are clearly on and island as far as Daybreak is concerned, and again - in waaaay over their heads.

Daybreak is clearly trying to cash in on the nostalgia coins, and they figured out a great way to do it: Hire a dev team that's too small to take on the scope of work proposed, add a cash shop for people who admittedly spend hundreds of dollars per month on microtransactions, and use a free service like Discord to host the community, using volunteer moderators to keep the overhead at $0.

I have hope for the game simply because of the dev team. They have all been working on EQ Projects for years and years now - and I want to see what they have cooking. But good grief, the (active in discord) community of EQL is head and shoulders above being the worst gaming community I've ever been witness too. I've actually defended the toxicity of p99 compared to them, because at least people here are masochistic enough to play p99 instead of "EZMode EQ."

The good news is, it doesn't seem like the devs are listening to the raging nerds feedback on what they want specifically - and that's causing the nerds to rage even more. I hope it stays that way, so that the devs can really show us what their vision for this game is, rather than what the vision of each individual butthurt nerd is...

But, on the whole, I feel like this experience in EQL is my wake up call to just put down the video games, finally, at age 40, and never come back.

[GardylooGubbins]

The thing that struck me the most about the community over at EQ legends was how much some of them seemed to hate playing EQ. I saw so many comments like "grouping is the worst part of the game" or "I'm glad I don't have to interact with other players."

I know the whole project is pitched as an EQ-theme park for people who don't have the time to play EQ, but I always thought of that as an unfortunate compromise to make, not a blessing. The whole reason I loved EQ back in the day was the "massively multiplayer" part of the equation.

[BradZax]

The community, on the whole, kind of sucks.

BIG time lol

Everyone has a PHD in EQL and none of them agree on anything.

[Botten]

Originally Posted by Defo [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I have hope for the game simply because of the dev team. They have all been working on EQ Projects for years and years now - and I want to see what they have cooking. But good grief, the (active in discord) community of EQL is head and shoulders above being the worst gaming community I've ever been witness too.

EQ Legends has drained a lot from Project 1999.

It is taking their talent and their population. Even P1999's competition; run by Secrets is helping.

Looking at the population on P99 now:
Red - 16
Blue - 153
Green - 456

After playing EQ Legends and the quality of life changes I don't look at P99 the same way.

I did the hardcore portions of P99. I did my time.

On EQ Legends, I am a level 50 Enchanter / Druid / Wizard and I have killed Cazic Thule 1 time, Vox 3 times, Master Yael 2 times, Phinny 2 times and soon will try Inny and Naggy.

I have 146 AAs and the Hate Parties on D4 aren't getting old to me.

If you are are still having fun in Project 1999 more power to you. I just don't see a future for it now. And no I just don't see Green resetting.

The server wide chat makes the game very social and very helpful.
The other channels are great.

[spoil]

Originally Posted by Botten [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

It is taking their talent

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I think most of the people we've 'lost' to EQL will not be missed.

[Vexenu]

I've been playing EQL for a couple of weeks now and agree with most of what the OP said. The game is fun but extremely easy and shallow. There is zero point to playing it on a remotely serious level. The more casual you are about EQL, the more fun you will have. It's great for just sort of messing around and experimenting with different builds. Gear is so easily acquired that it provides very little if any sense of accomplishment.

Playing any meta trio (or basically any trio with an Enchanter or Shaman) makes the game completely trivial, and I think should be avoided. Playing this game in sweaty fashion is kind of like going to a theme park and sprinting around and trying to ride every single ride as fast as possible. You're just robbing yourself of the ability to enjoy the content. There are already a ton of sweaty, meta-slave players who have basically maxed out their gear just a few weeks after launch. Grats to them, I guess. Their prize is bitching for the next six months about how the game doesn't have enough content.

Overall it's definitely worth checking out if you're an EQ fan. $20 gets you the game and the first month sub, and if you're a sweat you can speedrun the game in that time, and if you're casual you will have several months of entertainment. I'm not very bullish on the long term potential of this particular iteration of EQ, however. The formula and design choices just aren't conducive for retaining player investment over many months or years.

[Defo]

Originally Posted by BradZax [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Everyone has a PHD in EQL and none of them agree on anything.

I'm going to use this, because it describes the vibe perfectly. Not only does everyone have a PhD in EQL, but they have also all:

• Run small businesses and know how the best practice for dealing with customer complaints
• Been part of development teams on MMOs and know what and when to nerf
• Decided to stop playing, yet log in daily

It's such a joke seeing so many people who are clearly not fully mentally capable and/or matured scream into the void about "proper communication"

Originally Posted by Botten

After playing EQ Legends and the quality of life changes I don't look at P99 the same way.

I feel the same way. I loved P99 during Covid era when I was working from home every day, and could sit at the same camp for 6 hours and kill 3 mobs every 20 minutes. Now that I have severely limited time: I'd rather a place where I can actually accomplish something in 1 hour's time. I still have a soft spot for P99, but unless my life gets turned upside-down there's no way I can commit to the time sink.

Originally Posted by GardylooGubbins

The thing that struck me the most about the community over at EQ legends was how much some of them seemed to hate playing EQ. I saw so many comments like "grouping is the worst part of the game" or "I'm glad I don't have to interact with other players."

Yeah EQL attracts "Power Gamers." And honestly it's sad to see. The reason we all (most of us anyway) love P99 is for the social aspect. It's not just about chatting with mates in a chat channel, it's about coordinating effort between our in-game characters to accomplish things. The synergy between classes is what makes EQ great, and a lot of that is stripped away in EQL.

Originally Posted by Vexenu

$20 gets you the game and the first month sub, and if you're a sweat you can speedrun the game in that time, and if you're casual you will have several months of entertainment.

Agreed. For $20, I've gotten so far about 30 hours of gameplay, most of which I've thoroughly enjoyed. Meanwhile, I see lots of the sweat lords complaining about a lack of content, or nerfs to end-game items that they achieved in the first week. Their loss. I was too busy to spend 10 hours a day, 7 days a week playing EQL, and I'm enjoying the experience more because of it.

[kjs86z2]

Originally Posted by Defo [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

As a continuation from my last post:


-The multiclass system is still very addictive. I have tried different combos, and levelling each up alongside upgrading their spells is fun. "Bard / SK / Wizard works well, I wonder how Bard / Monk / Wizard works. Oh, pretty good! Now I'll try Bard / Monk/ Necro!" <--- Lots of that, which is fun.

-Instancing is still great, and I know P99 playerbase is against instancing (for good reason, as it's not classic) - but it's a good way to jump into a dungeon and AFK for an indeterminate amount of time as real-life things come up, knowing that you don't have to poopsock an exp camp or item camp.

-Overall, it's a decent fascimille of EverQuest to enjoy if you're like me and can maybe carve out 6 hours total per week to play.


-Although multiclassing is fun because it allows you many options, re-visiting the same zones over and over again to level each class gets tedious and boring. There have been days where I've had an hour to myself to grind some exp, and after 20 minutes I get bored and wind up exiting the game and doing something else completely.

-Still having the same problem when trying to group: Healers don't heal. Enchanters dont mez, etc. It's just faceroll through dungeons with alot of players, and it gets frustrating when you die and you are forced to stare at your corpse until you can release and get back to zoneline.

-Gear makes you overpowered, in a way that's not entirely fun. The power fantasy aspect strikes again. I was level 36, in the Ghoul Lord's room in LGuk and fighting the Lord and his two bodyguards at the same time, levels 47, 42 and 41. It wasn't a difficult encounter. I have 3k HP and enough mana to heal myself 4x over. Granted: more challenging zones like raid zones might bring more fun - but I haven't got there yet. Still only have 1 combo over level 40.


-/sigh. This is what makes me think I am aging out of being a gamer. The community, on the whole, kind of sucks. If you think P99 UN is bad(fun): check out the EQL Discord general-discussion. If there are any troll-minded folks here, you will have plenty of fun goading the folks in that Discord.

Every day, there are more complaints about niche feedback (example: Rename gypsys in Mistmoore to something "not racist", or "I have 1k AA and all classes to level 50 after 3 weeks and let me tell you this game is unfinished"). For every second spent in the Discord, 20 seconds is removed from the end of your life. It is really soul-crushing to see that modern gamers believe that games should be tailor-made to their specific wants and needs.

The Community Managers and mods of the Discord are also in over their heads. They have a team of a handful of mods (like 3-4) moderating a Discord with 60,000 people. They have banned clown / poop / eggplant emojis. They ban people from the Discord for starting arguments, or providing not-so-swell feedback. I feel for them, because they are clearly on and island as far as Daybreak is concerned, and again - in waaaay over their heads.

Daybreak is clearly trying to cash in on the nostalgia coins, and they figured out a great way to do it: Hire a dev team that's too small to take on the scope of work proposed, add a cash shop for people who admittedly spend hundreds of dollars per month on microtransactions, and use a free service like Discord to host the community, using volunteer moderators to keep the overhead at $0.

I have hope for the game simply because of the dev team. They have all been working on EQ Projects for years and years now - and I want to see what they have cooking. But good grief, the (active in discord) community of EQL is head and shoulders above being the worst gaming community I've ever been witness too. I've actually defended the toxicity of p99 compared to them, because at least people here are masochistic enough to play p99 instead of "EZMode EQ."

The good news is, it doesn't seem like the devs are listening to the raging nerds feedback on what they want specifically - and that's causing the nerds to rage even more. I hope it stays that way, so that the devs can really show us what their vision for this game is, rather than what the vision of each individual butthurt nerd is...

But, on the whole, I feel like this experience in EQL is my wake up call to just put down the video games, finally, at age 40, and never come back.

on the staff thing and handling discord

ya gotta remember who is running game jawn

not a whole lot of mental stability going on behind the curtains

makes rogean look completely normal

[BradZax]

I can't shake the feeling that despite this shopping mall being really cool and selling a lot of products...

That it's built on top of the unmarked and disrespected graves of innocent indigenous people who had a happy tribe before it was wiped out to build this shopping mall.

Say what you will about the artists that made THJ... that was art.

This... is a datacenter.

And every time I feel good about it, I feel gross about it too.

Ah well, such is life in the tribulation.