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I'm looking forward to playing this game with Aethien. Who else is joining us?

I'll probably give it a try. But the final decision will come after release once I have a better idea what the game is going to be like, what content they have, how its been reviewed, what the cost/F2P-model looks like, and whether or not that's all worth it. That being said, unless it comes out as an abject failure I'll at least give it a look-see.

Let me put it this way:

I don't care if I get "Go kill 7 goblins" quests. But there's a big difference between a scripted quest that always has me killing goblins, and one that's actually being given based on the environment at that time.

Like, say I can get a quest from an npc once a week. On one week, they tell me the goblins are getting aggressive, and I should go kill 5 of them. But say it's an out-of-the-way zone and not many people complete the quest. So when I head back next week, now I have to kill 10. Then 5 goblin chieftains. Eventually, goblin numbers (and strength/coordination/bases) are swelling to the point where the quest is actually a heroic world boss to take out the goblin king.

And during this time, goblins are branching out and moving into more and more areas of that map, building villages. Less-risky areas are getting dangerous. The goblins themselves are getting stronger, and are more frequently found in packs. Their coordination gets better.

And if we don't defeat the goblin king, he expands into other zones. Maybe they raid and conquer the town. Maybe we could lose all quest hubs IN that zone, and the new front will be a neighboring zone they're starting to invade.

And the more players taking part in that fight, and the more they do, the faster we can reclaim the zone (assuming we DO reclaim it, and the goblins don't just get super powerful).

Or maybe way back in the start, so many players completed that kill 5 goblins quest that goblins nearly (or totally did) disappear from that zone entirely. That npc is going to move on to other concerns. Maybe boring ones. And maybe that'll send the players to other zones, allowing seeds of conflict to take root in this zone in the meantime.

What idiggory describes plus a world that visually changes because things are continually built, reinforced, decaying and destroyed is my biggest hope. What Protein says is my worst nightmare.

That's what I'm hoping for. It'd be wonderful to come back to the game after a week away and find the town you were near no longer a flourishing trading post but now a burning, goblin infested ruin with rotting corpses hanging from the broken walls and hastily made goblin reinforcements and defenses surrounding the town center.

And then of ourse you could start sabotaging the goblins by conquering their defense towers and using their own siege weapons on them, or something.

Edited, Jan 11th 2014 12:44am by Aethien

[:puzzled:]

FFXIV used pretty normal western rpg systems, with the exception of their job system and really ****** maps. Everything else was just figuring out which key was bound to which menu, for me.

I'll be giving EQN a try. I'd like to be a part of the next Zam guild that disbands after three weeks.

EQ: Next looks more western for one, I really like what I've seen of it so far. Good style that doesn't try to be realistic.

I have to agree that I like their choice of artstyle. The more realistic style like TESO is going with is hard to get right in the first place if you ask me, and the biggest issue I have with it is that it looks old very quickly. In games where the purpose is for them to last for over a decade I do believe going with a style that is more "timeless" is the better option (I have to give cred to SE because I think they've found a good middle ground).



I think FFXIV:ARR did a good job with being what it is, I just don't enjoy that type of game anymore. I need a more dangerous and explorable open world that has a purpose, I want open world content, I want things to be a challenge as well as take a long time, I want travel to take time but be a part of the experience, I want death to actually hurt, I want more grouping and interdependence between fighting classes and crafters. Now I know that is not for everyone, but I hope that if nothing else a possible throwback server could give me something akin to it in EQN.

Yeah, but WHY are they in hiding. And why not hide in the city, where it's easy to lose someone in alleys, and not in some random coastal town where anyone could track a known agent back fairly easily, where it's not at all defensible (hey there massive sea), and where you don't even have an aetheryte crystal for quick access to reinforcements?

Just stupid.

I don't think we will go back to what it has been, but I think we will get some things more like it than has been the trend for th elast few years. Player rentention is a problem for a lot of games that go with the fast/easy/themepark and whilst I can see what you mean there really haven't been many examples of AAA companies trying anything else since WoW.

It is like saying well look we have WoW (which wasn't even that easy/fast etc when it became successful/was at the highest peak), SWTOR, FFXIV and GW2, but where are the successful ones that are different? Well first of all where are the ones who even tried? Very few tried, especially if we are talking something like a sandbox type game, out of the ones who did try where are the really big companies? Not to mention like was mentioned earlier the games that have tried to be different have still just gone for the approach of making 90% like WoW and the rest being a little different.

I am not saying it will be as big of a market, but the market is saturated with regular games atm and there is nothing for those who enjoy something else. Personally I think the amount of people who want something else is at least enough to make a sandbox with a more oldschool feel (although I am not saying we go back to 2003) be just as successful as any of the games I mentioned above (except WoW of course). If nothing else just because that game will grab most of the players who have wanted something like it just because there is no competition.

As for EQN I think it will be less like what all the games have been since 2004, but not like games pre-2004. I hope they go for something new and exciting overall. What I am hoping for though is that they have a speciality server that caters to those of us who really want it a little more grindy/harsher and with slow travel etc because I think EQN has the foundation to support it in a great way unlike themepark games do. That way maybe we (those interested in EQN) can all get what we want in a sense because even within the game there are different servers catering to different playstyles.

So pretty much Skyrim?

I could do that, well maybe except the "no action RPG" part. I'm feeling like a convert to the style and finished with tab-targeting. I'll still boot up SWTOR or something from time to time, but not being able to hit the guy in front of me with my sword because I'm looking at his friend 100 yards away is hokey.