Stratics Dev Chat inside : EverQuest 2 General Discussions

Good evening and welcome to another great Stratics House of Commons chat, tonight our guests are the developers of EverQuest 2! Tonight’s topic is General Discussion so all questions are welcome.
Brekkee: Please send your questions to [QT]Gowel or [QT]Jetuser - to do so type /query NICK and type in the window that pops up. Questions sent to me or the developers will not make it into the lineup, so don't bother. Full logs of the chat will be up on http://eq2.stratics.com shortly after the chat.
Brekkee: We'll start with a brief introduction from the developers, now would be a good time to send those questions.
Froech: Hello, I'm Bruce Ferguson, Live producer of EverQuest II. Welcome!
Cao: Hi, I'm Chris Cao, Lead Content Designer for EQII.
Moorgard: Hi, I'm Steve Danuser, community manager.
Russo: Hello, I'm Joe Russo, Lead Mechanics Designer for EQII.
Gallenite: Hi there! I'm Troy McClure. err.. Scott Hartsman, Technical Director of EQ II.

Brekkee: *Lister* There are quite a lot of tradeskill recipes, even at low levels. Would it be possible to add some more filters, such as by raw materials, or by subcomponents of a certain recipe?

Gallenite: Good question. There's really a lot of info involved in EQ II tradeskills, and as people get farther and farther into it, it's one of the many areas in the UI that we're looking to add more abilities to get useful access to that info. Nothing major planned short term, but I'd expect additional polish and usefulness showing up in every update.
Gallenite: (done)

Brekkee: Remember to get your questions in to [QT]Gowel or [QT]Jetuser , questions will be answered in the order they are received, so send them in now!

Brekkee: *Banhammer* Is there anything in the works to make it possible for those who completed the betrayal quest to retrieve the contents of their housing?

Cao: If you don’t collect your housing items before you betray, you will need to sneak back into the city via a traitor’s gate and grab your stuff. You’ll also want to release your ownership of the house.
Cao: Done

Brekkee: *Guest88* Will EQ2 be more available to the solo player or will it follow EQ as a primarily group/guild game and why?

Cao: In the coming months look for the addition of solo quests and encounters from levels 15 through 50. These quests will all be possible for a single player to work through and complete by themselves. We will always want to encourage grouping through the use of more frequent rewards and special zones (typically dungeons), but we want to make solo play viable and fun throughout the game.
Cao: Done.

Brekkee: *Murdoc* My question is...Will we ever see user customizable macros to cast spells. I miss being able to hit one button to, lets say, cast a heal, and say "Healing to %t".

Gallenite: Agreed. The UI team is adding some more useful abilities for hotkeys now. No specific ETA on our first non-hotfix style update, but the hotkey improves will be a part of it.
Gallenite: (done)

Brekkee: *Anon367* Hi there, I have a quick question: Are you aware of the growing complaints that soloing is not particularly viable (even for 1-2 hour periods as seemed to be Sony's original intent) past level 15 or so, and will you be rethinking or re-evaluating your current stance on solo content as a result?

Cao: Opinions will always vary on how much soloing should be rewarded in comparison to grouping. Our goal is to make sure that players can progress to 50 on their own if they chose, but we want to entice them to group up with others. The core of our game is based on player-to-player interaction and we want to reward players who play with others. As I mentioned in the above post, we are adding more content specifically for solo play.
Cao: Done.

Brekkee: Send your questions in to [QT]jetuser or [QT]Gowel. Questions sent to myself or the devs will not be answered

Brekkee: *Lister* What's been the most unexpected development so far since launch?

Froech: Being able to sleep.
Russo: A day off
Moorgard: They like us! They really like us!
Gallenite: The reaction has been a lot more positive than a lot of us expected.
Cao: That halflings are the MOST popular...err...least popular race. RIVERVALE!
Gallenite: hahahaha
Moorgard: I think we're done!

Brekkee: *aaron|eq2* Question for the team: Are there any plans to modify the current player merchant / seller system, perhaps for example allowing players to advertise themselves on the merchant boards as 'Armorer' so that players can get in touch directly, rather than needing Armorers to wait in their rooms for customers

Gallenite: Excellent suggestion. We do have /LFW (looking for work) in the works and the ability to display trade class in /who as well. Displaying it as a part of in-house storefronts does seem like it'd make a lot of sense. I'll pass it by the gentleman who wrote that bit and see what happens.
Gallenite: (done)

Brekkee: *Sass_Tonya* During Beta, we saw an update (for the most part) once a week. Once the daily fixes that are currently happening calm down, what will the players be able to expect as far as patches go ?

Froech: We've mostly been in "fix the broken stuff" since release, but we're moving forward now with new content. Next week you'll see a new release of some art fixes which should help as well, and we're hoping to be doing at least weekly releases of more fixes and new content. Our design staff has some pretty neat ideas up their sleeves which will be developing in the game in the future.
Froech: done

Brekkee: *LadyJade* Has the community responded well to eqplayers.com and do you think the guides and features will impact the fan site popularity, magelo etc

Moorgard: The response to eq2players.com has been great. It provides a lot of great tools all in one place to keep the in-game experience going when you're at work and so forth.
Moorgard: Our intention was never to hinder other fansites, but rather to provide a central place for players to learn more about the game and interact with one another.
Moorgard: There are a ton of great EQII fansites that continue to provide a lot of useful information, guides, maps, and forums for players.
Moorgard: Fansites are alive and well in EQII!
Moorgard: done

Brekkee: *Anon367* Can you provide a few hints on how we can expect the Qeynos v Freeport (i.e. Good v Evil) rivalry to manifest itself in game?

Cao: The stage has been set for the cold war conflict between the two cities. As players level up their guilds, they will uncover a series of plots (quests) and actions (raids) that involve the ongoing struggle between the two cities. The first of these opportunities to further the goals of your city are already in game. Look for us to build on these in the future…and listen to the statues of your leaders. They have clues to the coming confl
Cao: Done.

Brekkee: *Guest88* Ok. Will players ever be allowed to become Menders? This will make forays into deep dungeons and remote areas more viable.

Russo: Currently there are no plans for players to become members. A goal of the repair system is for players to return to the cities after an adventure to regroup and resupply. It is also vital to the crappy lifestyle that the menders have come to enjoy
Russo: done

Brekkee: *Serpentor* what is the reasoning behind no house storage?

Cao: Storage in housing is something that we’d love to add as time allows. Our current plan is to offer larger storage options based on the size of the house.
Cao: Done.

Brekkee: *LadyJade* When can we expect the email system to be mplemented in game?

Gallenite: In-game mail is definitely on the list of things we'd like to get added to the live game. We're still a little too soon after launch to be committing to specific dates on additions of major systems like that one, but we want it there too. Sorry I can't be more specific, but we don't have a firm date on it yet, and I don't want to pretend that we do.
Gallenite: (done)

Brekkee: *Squeg* Several crafting changes went in just before the game went live. Are there more changes in store? For instance, what's up with those crafting tools on certain merchants?

Russo: There will be a few tweaks and balances done to the tradeskill system. As Scott mentioned the UI should be getting refined over time. Also, the harvesting tools you see on merchants will be coming into play soon and will aid in your ability to harvest.
Russo: done.

Brekkee: *Hiroh* How are the release servers holding up under the load? Did you receive greater initial interest than anticipated?

Gallenite: Surprisingly well. The load we're seeing in live is actually somewhat larger than what we'd expected. They're really good problems to be having right now, and for the most part, the servers are performing very well, and getting better pretty much daily. I don't know that I've ever been more proud of a team than I am of this one.
Gallenite: (done)

Brekkee: *LadyJade* Can you tell us who is the highest level character?

Moorgard: Hold on while we check eq2players.com!
Gallenite: Sure, one sec
Gallenite: Right now.. Noah, on Permafrost.
Gallenite: (done)

Brekkee: *LadyJade* Are there any plans to make chat tabbed? it takes up entirely to much space with 2 or more windows. One for Chat and one for combat messages.

Gallenite: THats
Gallenite: Bah!
Gallenite: That's another one of the convenience mods on the UI todo list.
Gallenite: (done)
Gallenite: (Need to duck out early -- We may have launched, but the meetings never stop. Take care, all, and thanks!)

Brekkee: That will wrap it up for tonight. I’d like to thank the devs for coming! The log for tonight’s chat will be up shortly on http://eq2.stratics.com But don’t leave just yet! We still have the prizes to give away.
Cao: Thanks all, see you in game!
Russo: Thanks all, Freeport rules!
Froech: Thanks, folks... we appreciate all of your support! Have fun in game!
Moorgard: Thanks everyone! The response to EQII has been great and we really appreciate it!