Games.net interviewed EQ Producer Brad McQuaid over the July 4th weekend, and they covered a variety of topics including the upcoming expansion called The Ruins of Kunark. Here is the first part of this interesting interview. I will post the remaining parts as they are published on Games.net.
Jason: Let's talk about the Expansion, The Ruins
of Kunark. As I understand it, there will be one
race added (yep) and one continent added (yep)
that will be a level 50 and above kind of area.
Brad: Undecided at this point. We are building
the levels now-- it's too early to decide the level
spread now. I probably won't do that for another 6
to 7 months because I want to see where most
people are on average in the game. So that we
can serve the sort of demographic that is
represented in the game and there are enough
zones to serve those people. So I'm more than
willing to raise the cap from 50 to whatever if I
need to but it might not be needed at that time.
Jason: Besides the race, continent, new npcs,
new armor, and weapons, and such will there be
new skills for the different classes. For example
Warriors get a new skill at 51.
Brad: If were going to break the level cap of 50 it
would make sense to add additional skills. We
may approach it differently, perhaps it only goes
from 50 to 60 but it takes much longer to go from
50 to 51 than it takes to go from 49 to 50. And at
each point perhaps you are called something
different, maybe the Necromancer could be
known as a Lich. But we haven't really flushed all
of that out yet because it's too early.
Jason: When will it be released?
Brad: Q1 2000, we would like to release on the
anniversary. March 16, 2000. But this far in
advance we don't want to lock ourselves in, we
are targeting Q1 2000.
Jason: What about ownership of property in the
expansion, homes and such?
Brad: Features like that and even new skills in
general will probably be added as a patch over
time. The focus of the expansion is the addition of
a playable race and a whole new continent to
explore. And I really want people to understand
that in terms of other features and things that is
something that we will add onto the game through
patches for free.
Jason: How many Zones? On the content.
Brad: I don't want to give out the specifics
because if I say a number and we end up falling
short people will be disappointed but it should be
larger than 15 zones. Kunark is larger than
Faydwer but not as large and Antonica
Jason: What is the background of Kunark?
Brad: The race are the lizardmen or Ixar and they
used to have an entire empire that almost
encompassed all of Kunark. But their empire has
since crumbled and they are not at their glory
right now. But they do have that empire as their
history behind them.
Jason: Will they then start on the island or I
heard a rumor that they will start in a revamped
Temple of Cazic Thule?(Lizard men are there now
for those of you that haven't been there)
Brad: The new lizard men player race are a
relative of the more primitive lizard men on
Antonica. They will start out in their own starting
city located on Kunark They are neutral evil in
nature.
Jason: Will there be a beta process?
Brad: Yes, a small closed beta to check out the
balance of the zones, etc.
Jason: Okay, let's move onto some general EQ
questions, it's been 3 and half months when do
you think you will start to ramp up the GMGuides
roleplaying quests started in-house by living
people.
Brad: They are in the process now, they have
been going on for about 2 to 3 weeks now. Just
the other night on the test server a GM
summoned up an army of undead to surround the
tower in Oasis. We started them out simple
perhaps a Giant skeleton or something like that.
We had one where a mad dwarf was running
around the BB mountains attacking everyone and
screaming incoherently someone finally figured
out that he was cursed. They cancelled magic
him and he was freed from the curse and thanked
the person who figured it out and gave him a
reward. We are ramping up the complexity as the
players are getting used to the idea and honestly
as the GM/Guides get used to it.
Jason: Do you have the manpower with 20
servers to do quests that are on every server for
instance?
Brad: No, Probably very individual server kind of
basis. I'm excited about that because it gives
each server a kind of flavor. That's not to say
there could never be a large plot that affects all
the servers but mostly they will be individual to
the servers.
Jason: Do you have the manpower to create
quests on an ongoing basis? Is enough to create
RP on a daily basis?
Brad: Yes I think it's reasonable to assume that
we will have at least one dynamic quest per day
per server.
Jason: Do you plan to increase this?
Brad: I think there will be more as the guide
program fills out. It's a goal to increase the
dynamic nature of the game.
Jason: Are you still adding static quests to the
game?
Brad: Yes, we have several people that all they
do all day long is add quests.
Jason: Okay if you are adding them why are
some quests that were starter quest, I mean they
came with the game are still broken. For example
the monk headbands and sashes, you can't get
the high level of headband because they just don't
exist.
Brad: But you see that's not broken its just not
there yet. There is a big difference there. For
instance the monk quests that are there do work.
Jason: What I mean for instance the natural
progress is to go up to the Purple headband, or
sash but you can't get the purple sash because
the quest isn't there and if you talk to the monk
guildmaster he tells you they don't have anymore
to give out.
Brad: Yea I don't consider those broken they are
just not implemented.
Jason: I guess perhaps then the question is why
are wholly new quests being added when the
quests that came with the game aren't even fully
implemented? The opinion of some players is that
it's not a matter of not being implemented but that
the game came out of the box broke.
Brad: I think that is definitely not the way to look
at it. I think that is some players being used to
single player games, where you buy the box and
that is what you get with the game. We put in
areas that don't exist yet, NPCs talking about
things that don't exist yet. To me that makes
sense it's a clue or indication of things to come.
So if one of our game designers goes in and puts
in the framework for a huge quest that will take
him 6 months to complete and some of his NPCs
talk about different aspects that aren't completed
yet I don't consider that to be broken, but
something to look forward to. And you will see all
sorts of references to that in game.
Jason: What about quests for instance, and I
know this has to be a bug, a quest when….
Brad: Oh don't get me wrong, there are quests
out there that are broken and we fix those as
soon as we can. But I also need people to
understand that it's a continual process, we are
continually putting in new quests and going
through revising old quests. For instance quests
where we feel the reward is insufficient going back
and making better rewards. It's a constant
process. But since we aren't perfect people and
we are adding to the game more bugs will be
added. I kinda want people to understand that
there will always be things like that by having a
game that is never finished being made. It's a
completely different mindset than a single player
game.
Jason: Playing devil's advocate I think some
player think that before you add even one new
quest, implement all the quests that are
mentioned out of the box. For instance back to
the monks, before you add any new monk
quests, fix the sashes and headbands.
Brad: But you see we aren't looking at it like that.
Because the quest game designers sit down and
look at it, they read email, read the boards, listen
to the feedback and they look at the world. And
they think sure there could be another 10 monk
headbands and sash quests up to black or pooka
dot right but over here in the Troll hometown there
aren't nearly as many quests as in Qeynos. So
they think am I going to finish up the monk
quests which will never really be finished which
I've already put in a month into or should I help
the Shadow knights in Feerriot which have only
had 2 weeks spent on them.
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