Ranger Archive
Thread: New Ranger on EQ (OT)
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VeriBeri
Thu Sep 16, 2004 1:04 am
#1
Yes, I know EQ is old news by 5 years, at least, but I had never played it. 
So I took the advantage of the free trial offer and started a ranger character...just level 5 now after an evening of playing, but I think I'll develop it maybe until his early twenties.
The funny thing is, _at first sight_ EQ seems to have some very nice features that I had wished for in SWG (using SWG terms):
1. Trade 'professions' do not compete against combat 'professions' for skill points. I have always wished that we would get maybe 200 skill points for combat profs, and another 200 for crafting/support professions. I don't quite understand why the game experience of players need to be curtailed by making them choose between being combat oriented and crafting oriented. The only rational explanation is that SOE wants to force ppl to buy multiple accounts.
2. Skills go up automatically from usage. Ideally, this notion needs to be expanded dramatically...scrap the profession/skill point/class restrictions on what a player can and cannot do in game.
For example, any player should be able to pick up a pistol and try to do an eye shot shot...but the success rate should be a function of the player's overall xp, weapon xp, pistol xp, xp with that particular pistol type, xp with that particular pistol, xp from successful pistol special shots, xp from eye shots, xp from target species, etc. As people played a particular role (e.g. a person who tracked kimos and shot them through their eyes) they would become a certain professional (in this case a kimo hunter).
So how do you stop ppl from becoming overpowerful? Just put a decay rate to all xp based on game time (e.g. 1% per game day). That way, people would be limited to being good at things they kept doing and specialization would come naturally. And how do you stop ppl from being too specialized? By making the decay rate a function of how much of the 'general' xp comes from a particular 'branch' xp. For example, if you have 50% of your weapon xp from pistols, pistol xp would decay at 1%/day, and if it is 90% of weapon xp, it would decay at 1.5%/day.
3. There seems to be more things to do as you become more experienced (alternative advancements etc). This is probably just a result of the age of the EQ...in time SWG should accumulate depth and content, too, provided SOE waste time on limited-time content. (For example, dead-eye stuff...can you do the quests now? I heard that the encoded disks and readers don't drop anymore.)
It is said that everyone has one novel in them...it looks like every player has a game design too.
So I took the advantage of the free trial offer and started a ranger character...just level 5 now after an evening of playing, but I think I'll develop it maybe until his early twenties.
The funny thing is, _at first sight_ EQ seems to have some very nice features that I had wished for in SWG (using SWG terms):
1. Trade 'professions' do not compete against combat 'professions' for skill points. I have always wished that we would get maybe 200 skill points for combat profs, and another 200 for crafting/support professions. I don't quite understand why the game experience of players need to be curtailed by making them choose between being combat oriented and crafting oriented. The only rational explanation is that SOE wants to force ppl to buy multiple accounts.
2. Skills go up automatically from usage. Ideally, this notion needs to be expanded dramatically...scrap the profession/skill point/class restrictions on what a player can and cannot do in game.
For example, any player should be able to pick up a pistol and try to do an eye shot shot...but the success rate should be a function of the player's overall xp, weapon xp, pistol xp, xp with that particular pistol type, xp with that particular pistol, xp from successful pistol special shots, xp from eye shots, xp from target species, etc. As people played a particular role (e.g. a person who tracked kimos and shot them through their eyes) they would become a certain professional (in this case a kimo hunter).
So how do you stop ppl from becoming overpowerful? Just put a decay rate to all xp based on game time (e.g. 1% per game day). That way, people would be limited to being good at things they kept doing and specialization would come naturally. And how do you stop ppl from being too specialized? By making the decay rate a function of how much of the 'general' xp comes from a particular 'branch' xp. For example, if you have 50% of your weapon xp from pistols, pistol xp would decay at 1%/day, and if it is 90% of weapon xp, it would decay at 1.5%/day.
3. There seems to be more things to do as you become more experienced (alternative advancements etc). This is probably just a result of the age of the EQ...in time SWG should accumulate depth and content, too, provided SOE waste time on limited-time content. (For example, dead-eye stuff...can you do the quests now? I heard that the encoded disks and readers don't drop anymore.)
It is said that everyone has one novel in them...it looks like every player has a game design too.
Aenedor
Mon Sep 20, 2004 4:58 am
#2
EQ was fun, Aenedor Trueblades had 3.5 happy years of Rangering about Norrath. Will I still be SWG Ranger in another 2.5 years, I don't know . In EQ the sole point of the game is to level up, which is ok. I do like the class interdependencies that exists in SWG, i.e. being able to sell the resources I harvest to other players.
. In EQ the sole point of the game is to level up, which is ok. I do like the class interdependencies that exists in SWG, i.e. being able to sell the resources I harvest to other players.EQ has been out since mid 1999, there have been many expansions and updates to it since, so is difficult to do a fair comparison with SWG right now, but I am very hopefull that SWG will receive the same treatment as EQ and get regular updates and expansions in the future above and beyond what we already know about.
Phenix1050
Mon Sep 20, 2004 9:18 am
#4
I recently purchased Fable on XBox, which by itself is a wonderful game. My ideal character was a strong swordsman, bowman, with just enough magic to heal myself and teammates.
Well I finally pass my guild training, march out the front door of the guildhall, look left and see a guy I can talk to. He offers to give me a nickname (everyone in-game responds to your titile, by the way). Well about 3/4 of the way down the list is ....Ranger. I immediately ran off, did my first quest and promptly spent all my hard-earned cash on the Ranger title, rather than a new weapon or armor.
anyway, it's quite great to walk around town and hear women cry out "Well, Ranger. That's a nice, outdoorsy kinda name, isn't it?"
it's the little things in life that give me the greatest joy.
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