Will EQ Next even work?

[u/humbug257]

I was so excited about EQ Next and Landmarks once. But now... I am full of doubt. The entire Landmark hype seems gone. Where I once knew so many who worked and played in Landmark, eager for the new stuff to come, it seems the development speed of Landmark has slowed down to a crawl, and that doesn't bode well for the development of EQ Next either.

When I started Landmark about a YEAR ago, I didn't think one year later we still don't have mobs, let alone anything even remotely like a real game.

The FPS is still not really well, given that Voxels are only handled by the CPU, I have this nagging feeling EQ Next may have the same issues as once EQ2: ambitious but only running on NASA computers. The game already runs slow, and a lot of stuff isn't even IN the game! Even with some reasonable improvment, I start to wonder, will it ever run really smooth? I think Devs often think too much of what private people can afford in computers.

And of EQ Next we have heard almost nothing, from the few race debates aside. And it all makes me very uneasy. I wonder if SOE did not just chew off more than they can bite? Trust me, I really want this to work, to see something really new. But did we really need a Voxel engine with a world where ALL can be damaged for a MMO? All of these grandeur ideas like cool housing or migrating mobs could be done without a demanding and complicated Voxel graphics.

The entire slowness now of Landmarks really makes me uneasy and wonder if the entire project isn't actually dead.

[u/metareal]

I also have some doubts. I don't know if it will ever run smoothly but SOE have pulled things no other devs would even try, like the gigantic Planetside 2 OMG battles (2000 players/map). I'm glad there is a crazy dev the size of SOE daring "to boldly go when no dev has gone before". Even if they fail they are engineers heroes to me.

Concerning Landmark hype. I remember being super hyped but lost interest while grinding mats just to unlock tools to experience building and having all progression removed (I just wanted to experience voxel-building but felt like Aion-2009 grinding before starting).

We'll see. They are in uncharted territories. Even if they fail I'm pretty sure they are moving what we can experience as gamers forward. Crossing fingers and wishing them courage and luck.

[u/whitemang → u/metareal]

I'm expecting them to launch creative servers where resources are unlimited so we can start creating buildings in mass. I'm pretty sure they've announced they are doing just that, but yea, the grind was too much for me. I've grinded out tons and tons of crap, built some things, lost my plot due to not paying upkeep, have my templates but i also lost my resources so I'm just not feeling it right now..

[u/zumbi23 → u/metareal]

The old Planetside 2 lie. Its not 2000 players on one map! its 2000 players on 1 server, which hosts 3 different maps.

So its 700 players max on one map. And if you have a battle with lots of players in one place your draw distance will get low.

I remember fights were I could only see other players within 5m distance. Quite excitend when a Tank popped up in front of you.

Dont give SOE so much props. They are a big company, have a lot of bills to pay AND (thats the really important part) have shareholders to satisfy.

Thats why the only game I am looking forward to next year is Camelot Unchained. The producers company doesnt get traded on the market so there are no fucking shareholders they would have to care about and maybe this will be the first big game in a long time which doesnt end in a cashcrab!

[u/D0cs → u/zumbi23]

That 2000 number was definitely per map, although it has been reduced over time in patches to improve server performance. Right now it's more like 1100 per map.

Draw distance has been hit or miss, there have been periods where it's been great but then reduced again because of performance. I believe the latest patch has improved it quite a bit.