How Does This Happen?

It's not just about how small the dev team is, it's about how pig-headed they've become and how unwilling they are to take criticism. Tithe stats are a prime example. They could've nipped it in the bud quickly and easily (how hard is it to add a decimal point, really?). Players pointed out how OP it was from day 1. But they let it grow and grow until it became this huge unmanageable monster.

A good dev team can predict how changes will affect the game for years to come.

An ok dev team can predict how changes will affect the game for the next year.

Our dev team make changes and then are shocked at the results just a few months later.

 

Can't wait till they bump into the 64-bit limit for health pools due to stat inflation!

 

Except they're not increasing health pools at anywhere near the rate they're increasing the rest of the stats... hence the totally whacked healing situation.

 

Yeah, that has been a long running issue. They managed to get things back to a reasonable state in ToV. It was actually at a point where minor tweaking would be all that was required. Having druids really helped getting past a lot of the ToV mobs (especially early on). Unfortunately, the potency apocalypse quickly followed. Now we're back in an era that resembles COE.

I would be pleasantly surprised if the issues with healing receives attention from the Devs. Here is to hoping.

 

With your political comparison, I am sure that even people with direct contacts in the White House can be provided wrong information, be provided information based on assumptions, or be provided information intended to serve an agenda rather than the truth.

All we can do is base our decisions and positions on what we have available to us. So lets see if anything new (for me) has been raised.

I was aware of most of that. As for why they gave up on cross server dungeon finder, I would have loved to be a fly on the wall. Gear score made a brief appearance, and caused outrage. They never had a local server dungeon finder worth a damn, the queue system sucked, group formations were horrible, and any time they touched it, it got worse.

For a while, there was plenty of talk about cross server dungeon finder, until people started calling for mergers. The mergers happened, and cross server dungeon finder barely got mentioned there after. I would have to do some thread digging to find out if it was players or staff saying the mergers removed the need for cross server dungeon finder.

I don't believe it is so simple to compare pre-2015 Dev&Management team to the post 2015 Dev&Management team, because of the impact of staffing cuts. The working environment would be a whole different ball game.

As for your mention of asinine decisions continuing after former management departed, that opens a can of worms. It would imply:
Former management were utterly incompetent, had no control of their team, no idea what they were doing, or were complicit with the bad decisions from the Devs.
And that current management are the same.

When I look at what EQ2 produced before 2015, and the direction the game was clearly going from 2011, my expectation of what to expect from the EQ2 Devs significantly reduced after 2015, not just because I believe some good people were moved on, but because it is not reasonable to expect less people to do equal/better work on a task like EQ2.

Yeah. It often feels like the Devs are disconnected from the actual game, and the management above are in an ivory tower (well, more like a tarnished brass tower these days).

Very likely. It would be hard for anyone to argue against EQ2's population being on the decline. If this continues, EQ2 staffing will be further reduced, and the downward spiral will grow stronger. CN is not going to keep EQ2 alive for the sake of nostalgia.

At this time, EQ1 has a number of factors giving it a much brighter prospect for longevity. I remember back in 2004/2005, there was numerous discussions about how long EQ1 would survive with EQ2 being released, yet here we are.

 

CN knew the returns on each game in the entire portfolio of games BEFORE they bought the assets.

No one is arguing that the dev hasn't been assigned a tall order. And anyone who doesn't think CN isn't just milking money out of the game before their metrics tell them it's time to shut it down should stop drinking the kool aide.

What's ticking a lot if people off is the company is intentionally with holding, hiding, or just being dishonest about what they are really offering so people can make inforned spending decisions BEFORE they buy the game.

They are short staffed. Everyone knows this. Fine, just own it, do the best you can, and stop misrepresenting what players are actually going to get for their money.

 

And by the way, disincentivizing alts, and hiding it, not only illustrates a gross lack of honest candor toward customers that would most definitely influence sales, but also reveals that the same dumbass decisions that have existed over the years still remain.

 

I have nothing to say about the discussion itself, I just wanna say how awesome it is to see an actual discussion not being deleted or closed after 3 replies.

Thanks eq2wire.

 

I specifically remember Holly saying the just could not get cross server df to work, so they were going to do a server merge.

This was around aom or so.

 

I disagree with the suggestion that it was clear cross server dungeon finder (CSDF) would never get any attention, thus led to calls for mergers. From where I stood, it looked more like some people (it was not many, TBH) called for mergers while the CSDF was still formally in the works, and the mergers just up and happened. These mergers provided increased grouping opportunities, causing calls for CSDF to reduce significantly.

I agree some of the decisions they make. Others, I don't. To detail further, involves the response to the below:

To answer in a more appropriate manner, additional information would be required.

Which progression choices upset you?
Itemization yeah, it's been crap forever, especially when they scripted loot stats.
What is your issue with alts? That they encourage us to have 12+, then dial it back?
Complexity can be applied to many different facets of EQ2 game play, which area in particular concerned you?
Obfuscation of spell effects? What specifically do you have difficulty understanding?
What decisions about grinding upset you? Contested dungeons? Tithe?
In what area was scarcity a concern of yours?

Your idea of a good decision, could be another persons idea of a bad decision. The way I see it, any time a Dev tries to change anything, a quote from Machiavelli applies:
Nothing is more dangerous or difficult than introducing a new order. This is because those who benefited from the old order will fiercely oppose the prince who tries to introduce a new order, whereas those who stand to benefit from the imposition of a new order will offer only lukewarm support.

 

Hmm, interesting. I had a quick look to try to find Holly writing that in a forum post, but nothing stood out. But I did find:

AOM was released Nov 2014

Aug 31, 2015 Holly posted: "The foundation of these consolidations share the same foundation as cross-server dungeons also. In the current schedule, we'll return to working on cross-server dungeons when the server consolidations are completed and stable."

Server Consolidation FAQ | EverQuest 2 Forums

 

Doesn't conflict with my assertion about what she said.

 

Oh yeah, sure. Its just her saying they will get back to working on cross server dungeon finder, after the mergers are complete and stable. While you are asserting she said they could not get cross server dungeon finder to work, so they will just do a merger instead. Absolutely nothing conflicting there!

 

Pride. It's a bit less egg on their own face to say that, than admit they tried and failed to get a proper, functional (not broken or buggy as hell) CSDF up and running.

Remember, they could not get a single server dungeon finder working for the life of them. It was so bad it was a joke.

 

Don't remember where I saw it, but that's what she said. In fact, as I remember it, she resisted the idea of mergers for a year or more, selling the csdf to the players as the solution.

 

The actual quoted post from Holly herself, contradicts your claim. Either she lied in that post, or your recollection is incorrect