> *********** snip *****************
> Topic: HUGE changes coming to an EQ near you!
> Aradune
> Station Member posted 01-14-2001 04:48 PM
> --------------------------------------------------
> Hi all,
> The following is the new Producer's Letter, which will
> be posted to everquest.com on Tuesday. I wanted to get
> it up on the message boards sooner so you all can get
> the word out, and because you guys are where we get
> most of our feedback and deserve a little advanced
> info now and then
> These are BIG changes, and are a summary of reactions
> to months of thought and a ton of feedback. I don't
> think we've made changes this fundamental since beta,
> so cross your fingers and read on:
> ---------------
> January 14, 2001
> Hello all,
> Since the launch of EverQuest: The Scars of Velious,
> the EverQuest Live team has been working on a number
> of things, from addressing issues in Velious to adding
> additional content to other portions of the world. At
> this same time, we've been working towards a point
> where we can stop tweaking class-based abilities, and
> declare with confidence that they are as
> "balanced" as we can make them.
> It is a foregone conclusion that the diversity of
> EverQuest's population will never let us reach a point
> where everyone will be perfectly satisfied with their
> class's abilities, as nearly every change we make
> tends to bother some people while pleasing others.
> Still, we are confident that we can reach a point
> where problems in our current game systems can be
> reduced to the point that those left are either
> negligible in their impact, or offset inversely by a
> similar problem affecting gameplay in an opposite
> direction. We're nearly there, but following heated
> debate and the review of material and opinions sent in
> by the players, we've decided to make some exciting
> and unprecedented changes to a game system that has
> remained intact since release: the experience system
> itself.
> While the EverQuest Message-board FAQ states that the
> experience system is not subject to post-production
> changes, it also explains that as developers of an
> ongoing MMORPG in a dynamic world, there are times
> that we need to be flexible and address issues as
> necessary. Though it has always been our goal to avoid
> changes to core systems whenever possible, our
> additional goal of finalizing class balance takes
> precedence in this case.
> We're going to depart from our usual method of
> releasing information by giving everyone some specific
> information in regards to how these systems currently
> work, and how they will work after the patch. It is
> very important to us that everyone understands our
> goals, and the fact that these changes are helpful to
> all of the players. We can only do that by giving you
> the details necessary for you to draw your own
> conclusions.
> Zone Experience
> The first and perhaps easiest to explain change that
> we are making to the experience system is the
> modification of what we call the "Zone Experience
> Multiplier", or 'ZEM'. Currently, every creature
> in game of a given level yields a fixed amount of
> "Base Experience" (experience before it is
> allocated to group members). That base experience is
> then multiplied by the ZEM which is set to a value in
> correlation with the risk in a particular zone
> compared with the reward; at least, that is the goal.
> Recently we evaluated many underutilized dungeons and
> considered reasons why they might be underutilized.
> Some people suggested that proximity of bind locations
> plays a part, and as such we are considering adding
> more binding locations to the game. We of course will
> not allow everyone to bind on the doorstep of a
> dungeon, but these changes should hopefully reduce the
> potential run for a melee class. While additional
> binding locations probably will not be in the next
> patch, we did want to discuss our thoughts on the
> matter.
> Another suggestion, one that probably has the most
> merit, is that some dungeons are too risky given
> everything concerned. The natural conclusion is that
> we should increase the reward in order to offset the
> added risk. Our contention is that most people would
> rather be grouping and fighting their way through a
> dungeon because it's more fun, but feel
> "forced" to sit outdoors and camp zero-risk
> single spawns because it is safer and thus more
> efficient. While that statement might be true in an
> ideal world, it usually results in crowding in these
> popular outdoor zones (for example, Lake of Ill Omen
> or Oasis). The crowding in these zones really results
> in less efficient progress than one could make in a
> dungeon given a good group, but is still SAFE, at
> least ensuring that one will not have to tolerate
> "going backwards".
> We can increase the reward of a particular dungeon in
> two fashions: We can either put in good loot, or we
> can change the ZEM. The problem with increasing the
> quality or quantity of loot is that if the loot is
> good enough, it's more likely to draw people far above
> the desired level range for the dungeon, making it
> some place that appropriately leveled folk choose to
> avoid. The second problem with the ever-increasing
> quality of loot is inflation: as good loot becomes
> more widely available, its value and the prestige
> value from owning it declines.
> In this case, we decided that the most appropriate
> action for several underutilized dungeons would be to
> increase the ZEM; that is, increase the amount of
> experience that everyone gets when adventuring in the
> zone.
> As of the next patch, you will receive additional
> experience (per kill) in the following zones:
> Droga increased by 12%
> Nurga increased by 12%
> Solusek's Eye (SolA) increased by 13%
> Najena increased by 13%
> Befallen increased by 13%
> Paw increased by 13%
> Permafrost increased by 13%
> Kaesora increased by 18%
> Qeynos Catacombs increased by 20%
> Runnyeye increased by 20%
> Kerra Ridge increased by 20%
> The Hole increased by 25%
> Grouping Bonus
> We've always been the first to say that EverQuest is
> designed to promote grouping. Those who prefer to solo
> should be able to do so with some restrictions, but
> probably will not be able to go everywhere and do
> everything like a well-oiled, or like multiple
> well-oiled groups. This is a main foundation of
> EverQuest, and is what drove our decision to implement
> a class-based system where classes have strengths and
> weaknesses that complement each other.
> Aside from making it so that the best gear requires
> groups, either to get quest items or get the best gear
> directly, our goal was to make it so that groups could
> advance faster than a solo player. One way we tried to
> reach this goal was by putting experience bonuses in
> dungeons, so our changes mentioned above should
> certainly help in that area. Another way we tried to
> reach that goal was by giving a per-kill experience
> bonus based on the size of the group.
> One thing that has been confirmed by many of our high
> level players, both inside and outside the company, is
> that the "best" groups can already advance
> faster in a grouping situation than by any one member
> camping a single spawn. However, it has been pointed
> out that not everyone has the opportunity to get in
> the "best group". This led to many players
> choosing to "camp the single spawn" because
> they then do not have to worry about someone else
> getting their character killed. This in turn
> exacerbated the problem, as many players chose to
> "camp the single spawn" from creation to old
> age, and are just beginning to experience grouping and
> learn group-skills at about the time that dungeons
> become the most unforgiving. The inevitable result is
> that the level 50 "dungeon newbies"
> contribute to the fact that the group isn't the
> "best group".
> Our goal is to get people grouping earlier, and
> provide them enough of a bonus where they do not feel
> that they are losing ground during the learning
> process. We feel we can do this by doubling the
> grouping experience bonus and by scaling it up based
> on the size of the group. Currently, the bonus is an
> additional 2% experience per group member, not
> counting the first one, leading to a maximum bonus of
> 10%. Following the next patch, the bonus will be as
> follows:
> 2 person group - 2% total bonus.
> 3 person group - 6% total bonus.
> 4 person group - 10% total bonus.
> 5 person group - 14% total bonus.
> 6 person group - 20% total bonus.
> This bonus is applied to the total experience reward
> for killing a creature prior to distributing it to the
> group.
> Many people have pointed out that when killing in a
> group you get less experience per kill. This is of
> course true, but what is often missed is that you can
> kill many more creatures, and creatures of a higher
> level when in that group. For instance, a good
> two-person group should be able to kill things of a
> higher level over twice as fast as a solo person
> should. Now, we're going to give them even more of a
> bonus for doing so, AND make it easier for people to
> find pickup groups on the basis of getting higher
> scaled bonus.
> Finally, we very well may decide to revamp and/or
> readjust NPC populations and/or experience multipliers
> in the future in order to ensure that groups
> adventuring there find them worthwhile.
> Experience Penalties - Description
> I think that it would be appropriate to say that most
> players are aware that there are different experience
> requirements for advancement based upon the race and
> class you choose to play. Ogres, for instance, require
> more experience to level than Halflings, and
> Shadowknights require more experience to level than
> Warriors. As such, an Ogre Shadowknight requires FAR
> more experience to level than a Halfling Warrior does.
> What some people have discovered is that when in a
> group, everyone shares in this penalty. Before getting
> into our plan, I think that its important to talk
> about what our goals were regarding experience
> penalties and the group sharing in that penalty.
> When EverQuest player characters were being designed,
> it was immediately apparent that some races and
> classes would be more powerful than others given
> versatility and other factors. Later, it came to light
> that the concept of being "more powerful"
> began to break down at the upper levels, given that
> everyone capped at the same level. We could not let
> any one race or class be immensely more powerful than
> another at that final point, as it would essentially
> put parts of the game off limits to those who chose
> the less powerful classes. While we did a good job of
> making races vary in power, but not so much as to be
> unbalancing, the same could not be said for classes.
> Still, though classes would be roughly equivalent in
> regard to the compelling reason to play them through
> versatility, the experience penalties were kept.
> In regards to the sharing of the experience penalty,
> it was apparent in beta, before the penalty was
> shared, that those playing characters without an
> experience penalty leveled faster than those that did.
> It was obvious that this would occur, but it was to
> the extreme that a group of friends, all playing
> together, would become separated to the point that
> they could no longer group efficiently in the mid to
> upper-mid levels. So we chose to distribute experience
> in the group on the basis of the total experience of
> each member rather than the level, in order to keep
> groups together.
> As such, a level 20 Troll SK, having more experience
> total than a Human Wizard of the same level, would get
> more experience from each kill, while the total
> experience for the kill was unchanged. Essentially,
> the SK would take part of the Wizard's share were
> everything distributed equally to begin with.
> Experience Penalties - Resolutions
> Over the past week the EverQuest team has been
> considering experience penalties in all their forms.
> We had many meetings where the issue was hotly debated
> from both sides. We had to consider not only the
> effect on the individual player, but also the effect
> of any changes on the game as a whole. Eventually, we
> nearly unanimously decided the following:
> 1. Race-based penalties are appropriate. An ogre, for
> instance, does indeed make a better warrior than a
> halfling. It is not so little that the faction and
> size problems make up for it, and not so much that it
> is really unbalancing at upper levels, but enough that
> the penalty should apply. Secondly, the penalty is not
> so severe (compared with class-based penalties) that
> it would cause groups to break up on the journey from
> one to sixty due to level differences.
> 2. Class-based penalties are not appropriate. Classes
> are roughly equivalent in power throughout the level
> ranges, and the versatility does not make up for that
> penalty. In fact, the majority of changes made to
> classes in the name of balance in the last year were
> based on the assumption that, at the high end, each
> class should still be roughly as needed and balanced
> as any other.
> 3. Penalties, in any form, should not be shared with
> the group. Players know that no one class is immensely
> more powerful/valuable than another, and as such it is
> not fair to ask them to share a burden. If classes
> with penalties were really more powerful or valuable
> than the other classes, then it might be right, but
> that isn't the case here. Furthermore, sharing of
> penalties causes people to reject potential group
> members on the basis of them "sucking" too
> much experience.
> 4. We're going to fix it.
> 5. Class-based experience bonuses (which warriors and
> rogues get) are also not appropriate, as they cannot
> be so if penalties are not. However, we've decided to
> leave this as-is, since the bonus is not so severe as
> to be unbalancing. Bottom line: we don't feel the
> bonus is enough to warrant a fix that could be
> interpreted as a 'nerf'.
> Experience Penalties - Implementation
> Though people often refer to the class-based penalties
> as the "Hybrid Penalty", most classes have a
> penalty. Hybrids just have the largest. A hybrid
> requires 40% more experience to level than standard,
> Monks require 20% more, and Intelligence casters
> require 10% additional experience.
> Unfortunately, we cannot change the experience tables
> themselves without running each character (which
> number in the tens of millions) through an
> "Experience Converter" without existing
> players changing levels spontaneously. While some
> might argue that we should grant free levels to
> everyone with a penalty, that would not be in the best
> interest of gameplay. After all, who would want a
> paladin with level 40 skills (skills in the
> player-sense, rather than the character-sense) in your
> level 60 group tomorrow? Everyone earns his or her
> experience under the rules that exist at the time.
> This means that we must address the penalty
> differently: basically, for every kill, after all
> grouping bonuses and zone bonuses are applied, the
> experience will be split up according to level, rather
> than experience. For those classes that do not have a
> penalty, they will then be given that share. Those
> classes that have a penalty will get their share,
> multiplied by their experience penalty. Essentially we
> are creating extra experience to give to those with a
> penalty after everyone else has gotten their share.
> Since penalties are always a value over "1",
> this results in the creation of additional experience.
> And, since shares are determined by level rather than
> total experience as before, a character will get just
> as much experience for a kill based upon the size and
> level of the group, regardless of the class makeup.
> Finally, everyone in the group gains experience at a
> faster rate because we're creating the additional
> experience for those with penalties out of thin air,
> rather than taking it from other members of the group.
> That means that after implementation, those without
> penalties will get more experience for every kill than
> they would have if they ever grouped with a class with
> a penalty.
> Now you'll notice that we are dividing up experience
> based upon the LEVEL makeup of the group. For
> instance, if a level 20 and a level 21 group together,
> the level 21 will get more experience per kill. That
> is however only fair since the level 21 does actually
> contribute more value to the group.
> There is a problem, however, with this 'new' formula.
> Death penalties are currently based off of the level
> before your current one. Secondly, everyone suffers
> the same numeric experience loss on death as anyone
> else of their race, regardless of class or class-based
> experience penalties. What this means is: if I am a
> cleric, and you are an SK of the same level and race,
> we both die and lose the same numeric value of
> experience (Example: 100,000 experience points). When
> we go back to recover from death, you as the SK will
> get your 100,000 points back faster than I will as a
> cleric, since all of the experience you get is
> multiplied by your class-penalty (1.4). Essentially, I
> lose and gain experience at 1.0, but you lose at 1.0,
> and gain at 1.4.
> This is a balance issue we decided was also necessary
> to address. If we are going to make the statement that
> class experience penalties should not exist, we then
> have to do it on both ends (with exception to the two
> classes that we've decided to leave as-is). As such,
> rather than losing the same numeric value, loss on
> death will ALSO be multiplied by the experience
> penalty. Since everyone currently loses experience as
> if they are a warrior of their own race, we do not
> want anyone to lose more relative experience (e.g.
> experience such that recovery from death is more
> difficult). Hence, we further multiply the experience
> loss on death by the class experience modifier for
> warriors (0.9).
> In our example above, my cleric would lose 90,000 XP
> on death at my level (Same as before since clerics do
> not have an XP penalty), but your SK will lose 126,000
> XP (Same as before, plus something to offset the
> experience gain bonus). Death is, however, still
> easier to recover from for both classes since we
> create experience out of thin air for every kill.
> We felt that it was important to announce this as well
> since those with penalties will see a larger portion
> of their "bubble" lost upon a death, but
> will now recover that experience much faster. It's
> VERY important to understand this. Again, if you play
> a class that gets a bonus now when you make a kill,
> you will also lose more due to death. Please remember
> this when, after your first death post-patch, you see
> a greater experience loss on your screen: you are ALSO
> gaining more experience for each kill.
> Summary
> The changes that we are making in the next patch
> should have a profound impact upon the game:
> Classes no longer have a true class-based experience
> penalty, making it easier for people to play the class
> that they want to play, rather than the class that
> they feel compelled to play due to faster advancement.
> Race based penalties are no longer shared with the
> group, and in truth are not severe enough to greatly
> impact the advancement speed of any particular race.
> Even the race with the worst penalty will level no
> slower than a human monk does now, and in truth will
> level faster due to the other changes that went in.
> The grouping bonus increase, in addition to the other
> changes, makes grouping much more efficient, without
> reducing the current efficiency of soloing for those
> who prefer that route.
> Experience modifiers turned up in the other zones
> should encourage people to spread out, have more fun,
> and allow those staying behind in other areas to have
> more fun themselves since the area is less crowded.
> All players, assuming that they have an experience
> penalty, or ever group with anyone who does, will
> level faster.
> Many of these changes are quite involved in regards to
> their implementation, and as such we want to be sure
> that everyone interested understands them. Alan
> "Absor" VanCouvering will be happy to answer
> any questions that you may have on the EverQuest
> Message boards. Until then, we sincerely hope that
> these changes will help all players, whether
> "uber" or "causal", experience and
> enjoy EverQuest to their greatest potential.
> For Brad McQuaid, Jeff Butler, and every dedicated
> member of the EverQuest Team,
> Gordon Wrinn
> Associate Producer, EQLive
> Sony Online Entertainment