EverQuest Devs' AMA Turns into a NO FEST! Responses Spark Community Apathy!

We dive into some of the Dev AMA responses especially around the TLP 2024.
Alot boils down to A. small team, B. lack of investment, C. no time.

[@coldrunfinalfantasy5545]

“I don’t want to be playing in Kunark for 6 months. I don’t think anybody does.” For me personally, this is the main reason I play Project Quarm. With few EQ hours per week, this feels so much less rushed than TLP.

[@gavcarl]

Quarm is perfect for those of us who want to take time off without falling behind. I love 9 month unlocks on the server.

[@TBCNexus]

@@gavcarl 100% quarm has its place I guess I’m too accustomed to the tlp unlock cadence !

[@grayoth4156]

I completely agree with you. I don’t know if it’s because people roll on these new TLPs often but I’ve not played any classic/kunark/Velious in some time. I want to take my time and not feel any sort of rush. Let me make alts, waste time, etc.

[@Subvaries]

Quarm has its audience. I think Daybreak knows any attempt to make a quarm or p1999 type server would be a dead server a few months in. Look at Agnar, people said they wanted a locked server and that server is completely dead. The TLP audience is just a different audience. I honestly think daybreak is going to shoot themselves in the foot even if they go with a Kunark release. There are a lot of people out there (like myself) who prefer a classic release.

[@livelucky74]

It's funny how happy we are to see communication from them that took, what, maybe 5 minutes of their time? Imagine if they just took 5 minutes a day to communicate on forum threads.

[@primmtravels450]

I wanna play beastlord at the start of a TLP. They should just do it! I want it!

[@Erekai]

I'd like to see some data on where they make their money. TO ME, it seems like they really ought to prioritize TLPs a lot more than they do, because it seems to me that's where they're making a significant portion of their money. But the reality is, I don't know how much they bring in annually from expansion sales or marketplace items bought specifically on non-TLP servers, so I just really don't know. I'm guessing they have these internal numbers that help them budget and decide where to put their efforts, but as a strictly TLP player, sometimes I feel really forgotten, and no time is it more evident than in this AMA where basically every answer was No.

[@seionne85]

I will say this as far as "yes's" go from absor; Qhen Yelinak was new, I forgot my loot on Vox in a DZ and Absor (95% sure it was him) gave me a yes to getting my loot back! Probably bc they wanted to do what they could to keep tlp players happy, but it left a lasting good impression with me as I think that's the first time I ever filled a ticket

[@JoshuaKoitzsch]

I have been having a blast in Quarm.

[@arsfrags3475]

I asked a question about the botting problem, but the question was deleted :D The AMA did help me understand where their priorities are as a company and unfortunately TLPs don't seem to be one of them.

[@mandzakminiatures]

The last time I played was on Fippy TLP. It was fun. Though I would personally like original content to be more casual with a month unlock for each expansion through Luclin. I liked the TLP quality of life improvements since the original game, so I don’t need it to be too classic. Though I just joined Quarm to warm up and it’s been fun.

[@billsharp7698]

Going to say, the popular EMU servers are being better handled than the current Live/TLP mess that EverQuest is in. The only "carrot" they have been dangling is the "New" EverQuest starting development next year. They do get points for unique ways to say "NO". :)

[@bobbun9630]

I have my doubts on any "new" Everquest. And frankly, if they tried to develop it under the staffing and budget conditions they currently have, would you really want to play it?

[@ThisIsQuarty]

No.

[@TBCNexus]

The only yes was to more marketplace items!

[@Wiretwisterz]

@@TBCNexus No Look at me, I'm an EQ Dev!

[@gordond8]

Just 1 more nail in the EQ coffin. DBG gets none of my money till trust is restored. Say no no no is not a step in the right direction

[@DaxtAttack]

thanks for keeping me up to date.

[@greaterfaydark9428]

I still spend 99 per cent of my EQ time in Classic EQ with just the odd venture into Kunark and Velious. Without old Freeport and the original zones I just can't do the TLP's. One day maybe but I'm not holding my breath.

[@Erekai]

I used to feel this way, and then you just kind of... get used to it? At this point, I hardly remember what the old Nektulos and Lavastorms were like, and even though I still don't LIKE new Freeport, I can at least get around in it, but it took several months of looking at my map every single time to navigate, because you can't really navigate visually as everything just looks the same and it's all the same drab brown color. It's quite horrible, visually, but the fact that it's only 2 zones now instead of 3 is kinda nice.

[@jnande3]

I would love a hardcore server. Not where you have permadeath, but restore the hard aspects the game originally had. Having to retrieve corpse to get your gear back. Open world contesting. Original Freeport sure would be nice. No DZs all open world. I think picks spawning to offset zone population issues would help. Yeah people could do the same content in different picks if mobs are up, but the respawning mobs would offset that to some degree because it takes time to clear trash. Maybe force people to do more zones instead of the same core zones all the time etc.

[@Subvaries]

You are essentially asking for p1999. Its out there, go play it.

[@barbe00brune]

I would suggest to try p99 green server. It has all the old mechanic and is as close to classic velious as it can be. Community is 50/50, you can group with really nice people but raid scene is absolutly disgusting. So it really depends on what you want. I would recommend not trying blue server as that is just a bad idea with the big guild there just gatekeeping everything and trying to prevent newer player from playing.

[@primmtravels450]

Yeah it was atleast refreshingly honest atleast.

[@bobbun9630]

Considering they haven't finished the "new UI", which really doesn't seem to be intended to deliver a substantial new UI experience to players, and are just taking it in the tiniest of bite sized pieces without addressing some glaring flaws, I find it shocking they have the resources to do anything at all, even answer a long list of questions with "NO!" I don't know what goes on internally at Darkpaw, but it certainly looks like EQ2 has a big advantage over EQ in having been developed slightly later so that there was more development experience and better tools when it was first put together. My guess is that makes it easier to develop for. Of course, they have maintenance on that game weekly instead of monthly, so I'm also going to guess it might break in a big way if they didn't do that.

[@chuckchuckerson5364]

They don't like touching early EverQuest, but they don't give us early EverQuest... Where are the old zones, spell effects, and original class values? I love the TLPs, but they could be so much better if they were given to an actual team of devs. These people couldn't program a solitaire app.

[@BoomerElite4u]

As someone who actively plays World of Warcraft and EverQuest simultaneously I am well aware of the fact that the average WoW player is now 40+ years old due to the fact that the game hasn't been able to attract a younger audience. I don't think the people at DarkPaw are aware of the fact that if they don't make changes most of the EQ players will be dead 15 years from now. Not very good for job security.

[@Subvaries]

I don't think they will ever be able to make EQ appeal to modern audiences. I think that's why they're working on a new game. For now EQ's entire business structure runs off of 30-40 year olds with 4 accounts. Eventually im sure EQ will die, but nothing lasts forever. The problem with old MMO's is they're hard to get into. You look up the game, realize it has it has like 20 expansions and tons of new things added over the years. That's an incredibly daunting task to ask someone new to commit to learning.

[@endragon1]

TBC you should hop onto Project Quarm! Very fun server!

[@gavcarl]

No bots, no microtransactions, no boxing, no RMT PLs, no warping, no ingame store just devs and a community who are passionate about their work. The community is so much more pleasant too without Krono being a thing there. On TLPs people NEED every little scrap of junk to vendor off to afford their next krono.

[@ThisIsQuarty]

I really struggled with the Camera and client in general. I don't know if I was being stupid (very possible) or if there's fixes and so on... but it was not as enjoyable experience "playing the game" as the client I'm used to on TLPs. I hear great things about the community and such, I just couldn't get past the janky software part.

[@MrSerpico145]

​@@ThisIsQuarty describe your issues, people are very helpful in providing solutions.

[@legbert123]

How far can you play into Quarm? Is it lvl 50 max?

[@remishizzle]

Our group of old EQers were excited for Quarm. At least until it launched and gave select players early access with an exploitable xp quest so they could get ahead before the floodgates opened. Seemed pretty clear it's just another elitist server where certain players will always have privledges the average person won't. We noped out. Fun sandbox idea though. Glad some are enjoying it.