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Alrighty... so another Fan Faire has come and gone, and it's time for Croix's Report. So, without further ado...

First off, I hate flying... not the planes, not the being 30,000+ feet in the air, I can deal with that. It's the people. Those who can't shut their Blackberries off, those who can't deplane without a long excursion. I got into TWO fights getting off the plane, one in Pittsburgh getting on the flight to Philly, one landing at Las Vegas. I HATE people.

Back to the Fan Faire itself:

Thursday, June 25th:

It actually started for me early, I landed at the airport, was catching the shuttle to the Bally's, and who else is getting on but most of the DC Universe team and Nodyin... whom is also on the DCUO Dev team now. We waxed philosophical about game development in general, but we did cover one topic that I've felt for awhile. As Nodyin had been AA dev, he caught a lot of crap based on the power of AA's, but as he noted a lot of the original AA were way overpowered, +15% to dodge etc. Strikethrough was actually put in for mobs due to the fact that, at one point in testing, the devs could not hit PC's more than 40% of the time. We discussed this for awhile, how a lot of legacy systems and coding have actually limited what the devs can do in the modern day.

So, I get in, check in, and that's when I find out that, despite them saying it was booked full, Bally's gave me the Fan Faire rate. I highly recommend the place, it's a little short on good food, but otherwise great.

So, I head down to registration, which runs fairly quick for the pre-reg. Lack of writing utensils SEVERELY hampered the on site regs, as Oneness will attest. We killed time shopping until the opening ceremonies, and there is a LOT of shite to buy. We chatted it up, then went in when the doors opened. Essentially, night one is a general gathering. Unfortunately, like last year they did it in the hotel and I prefer the lounge/club idea, but such is life. Two important things came out of that: Brenlo is no longer Community Manager, but is instead the EQII Producer, and EQ has a new producer though Clint Worley is still on the team. Other than that, there was no real news, which I like. The first day lets you relax. Friday, the panel grind begins.

Friday, June 26th:

The first panel I attended was the Customer Service Panel. Essentially, it was the head of CS for EQII Ima Somers, Tim Vick the head of the EQ/SWG/PS GM's, and Jameson Wright, who was a SWG expert gm who does a lot of the training materials for the GM's on his side. They discussed the CS process, got our feedback. A lot of the things brought up, such as the petition system being somewhat cumbersome were already working issues, essentially. Three interesting things came out of it:

1. The guide program was discussed, and someone asked why they're only there for storytelling and to hand out milk and cookies. As it turns out, Ultima Online, back in it's older days, was SUED by some of their guides claiming they were doing "Work" like GM's and therefore deserved "work" benefits, DESPITE it being a volunteer program. As such, most if not all US-based game companies with similar programs shut them down or, like SOE, reduced them to roles where they didn't deal with petitions. And SOE will not reinstate guides more actively due to possibly opening themselves up to legal action. A sensible call, the room agreed, but it left a bitter taste to a lot of us that we're lacking in customer service options and volunteers get shafted because of greedy jerks.
2. I brought up that we would occasionally get petitions answered on FV that items couldn't be traded due to being No Trade, the CS team felt this was WIDELY inappropriate, but they also said we'd hear something that night to allevaite the issue. I was curious.
3. The gold/plat spamming was brought up, and the new head of CS was actually in the room and answered that we'd get a detailed answer that night, but in general they are making an effort to combat it and have had some success. They say the issue though is the sheer size, organization, and international aspect. I asked if SOE had met with other MMO makes, and he confirmed they've had conferences with all the top MMO platforms including Blizzard and Mythic along with the FBI being involved, but the credit card fraud involved is HUGE. He confirmed they're still charging back credit cards to SOE when they get banned, and this is costing SOE millions annually in fees. It's simply tough to combat China.

So, very satisifed with the responses in that panel, I moved onto the Everquest 10th Anniversay Celebration panel. This was essentially just the Devs being interviewed by a gent named Jace Hall, I'll get to him later, but they were talking about their experiences in EQ as players and developers. It was here I found out Prathun also isn't on the dev team, but there are a goodly number of devs on the team, some of which are newish to being a full on dev. Some, like Elidroth who did last years legacy seem to be getting a bigger share of responsibility. For example, he took on AA's from Nodyin, etc.

The panel wasn't incredibly revealing in terms of normal Fan Faire material, but it was refreshing to hear from the Dev's about their game experiences and how they feel about the game. As I've said before, going to Fan Faire will really change your view of the game, and this panel was a perfect example. They essentially talked about their love of the game, what inspires them about it, etc.

After that, I returned to the lounge room, bought the EQ Anniversary book, and had it signed by a log of the old time EQ team, including Smed and Brenlo, as well as Donato Diancola.

Next up was the Game MEchanics panel, which is always a haven of idiocy. Seriously, the stupid questions NEVER cease: Can we get an AE rez? MGB rez? MGB DI, group DI, etc. It's a cornucopia of "What are you smoking" with some decent questions interspersed. I'll go over some of the items I remember, plus some from that thread with questions ((Yes, I printed them up and asked)).

• Paladin 96% rez: Devs are considering it
• Enchanter DPS: The Devs feel it's fine when you add in not on direct DPS (Nukes, DoT's, Charm) but their attributable DPS in buffs and auras.
• AA Window: We suggested a method to sort the window to hide all lines fully purchashed, The devs weren't against it, but SKlug has to look into the coding.
• Will Anguish augs be made slot 7 as they are groupable: No, the devs feel there are enough slot 7's to go around, essentially, and it opens the door to do so with other raid augs.
• Backflags on MMM/Cryst: Maybe
• Epic focus: The Devs are very against the epic focii, feeling many of the focii/clicks were mistakes to a certain point and far too powerful.
• Tradeskill targets: There is no specific target atm, nor time frame, but Ngreth commented the following: Baking/BRewing need work, but they want to fix code issues with food/drink first, flectching needs work but must be balanced to not create archery imbalances, and he just does not have any ideas atm for pottery that haven't been put out and shot down in some manner (Community, balance issues, code issues). He is open to suggestions, and I know quite a few came his way during the weekend.
• Mind Wrack MGBable - The Devs feel this could be a balance issue as there is a likely gain of HUGE amounts of mana they'd have to account for in future raid planning, so likely a no for now.
• Paladin AE Hate: This wasn't asked by me, and to be frank, the paladin community is losing out by having idiots ask questions. The person who asked declared warriors get AE taunt and so do SK's. A lesson: AE taunt is a WARRIOR ONLY ability, as taunt and Hate are NOT the same things. Hate is a value, tuant is a mechanic. SK's get AE Hate, but it's no more than our single target on any one mob. The devs are aware of paladin issues, including the current broken nature of slay creating DPS issues as they cannot be upgraded without breaking slay further, but they are working on it. However,t hey feel AE Hate (Again, Hate, not taunt) is an SK Defining ability. They ARE however considering a "Panic" button for all tanks.
• Illusions - There are coding issues with these, Ngreth and a few other devs aren't adverse to perhaps having some form of hand in for AA, etc, but not on ALL illusions, and they need to check some coding restrictions. While I was checking in on Thursday, actually, Nodyin had mentioned there have already been a few ideas for alleviating this issue, but it's created some code challenges/issues, so it hasn't happened yet.
• Clickies - The Devs are considering making SOME clickies put onto the potion belt, essentially making the Potion belt just belt slots for click items. However, it will be very specific and there are some code limitations.
• Epics - No Epic 3.0's
  

Following this was the Quest Design panel, where the Devs (Particularly Absor and Elidroth) went through generally what it takes to put a quest together in EQ. Some particulars:

• The code to put in an NPC just existing in the world is hell, not including location, pathing, etc.
• Quests are normally designed on a high level, then more details emerge. This means things usually start with an overview of the expansion, what the devs want to accomplish and what stories to tell, etc, and then go onto a faction/zone level, and are drilled down further from there.
• Itemization is usually at the end of quest design.
• Epic quests take an extremely long time for each. They averaged a month of Dev time for all the coding, NPC's, dialogue etc, plus thousands of testing man hours, plus the itemization itself. This leads to a need for the reward to be so awesome that it becomes a balance issue. This means there will be no new epics.
• The devs do like to design "Long" quests, like Face aug, shawl walk, etc, that aren't as class specific.

When that panel ended I took a short break to compile notes and get some grub, then it was back for the general discussion panel:

• Chanter Mez/Stun scaling - When asked about a focus like scaling, it was replied that they can check into whether the coding can be done, but the intention is for AA stun/mez to carry the gap until the new spells are available.
• MGB refreshing faster in OOC or a second AA for OoC - Possible, as the devs dislike downtime for buffing, but they want to examine it for any balance/exploit issues and code restrictions
• SoD Raid PRogression - It was asked if SoD raid progression was the model going forward, where only one member of the raid needs to have the full flags to request a run, while others need lesser zone access (Kora + Key for Tower). The Devs replied that this was the intended model going forward, as they felt the playerbase was not happy with PoP/SoF like systems of requiring certain flagging, even with final backflags later being available. They stated the issue, as they saw it, was SoD was "very undertuned" and too easily beaten.
• As an aside to the above, players asked if Tower would be retuned. The Devs stated no, as they in the past have felt it's not a great solution and tends to leave players upset, either by making the raids harder and some folks feel the early folks had it easy, or making other raids easier which makes those at the end wonder why they had to crawl through the hard method. As such, they are leaving it generally alone, except...
• 36 Man more difficult versions of Tower will be added over the summer as something for the high end guilds to chew on, as well as to test the feasability/desireability of such raids in the future. These "Hard Mode" raids may or may not continue in the future.
• Cleric vs Merc - To alleviate cleric issuees, they are getting some new utility/toys in the expansion to give them some added flexability, but the devs seemed generally happy with clerics, and felt mercs werent't replacing them. My theory being if an appropriate level/gear/AA cleric is being replaced by a merc, the cleric sucks.
• Bazaar searches - At a request, SKlug is going to look into whether bazaar searches by weapon ratio and AC aug by slot (Slot 7, slot 8) are feasible.
  

After this was more grub, followed by Smedly's Community Address. This is essentially a "State of the Union" for SOE. I'll focus on the stuff relevant to EQ or worth nothing about SOE in general:

• Customer Service and all of its reps have moved back to the United States and no longer operate in India. This was actually done some time ago, but there was a period of changeover.
• Along with this change, there were new policies and a new team started, NUGIT, Norrathian Underground Gnomish Investigation team. Their job is to not only go after spammers, but to tail them through logs, find their runners, from the runners to the mules, mules to other mules, then back to the farmers, and ban the team. As stated before, the cheap nature of the operation overseas means that they come back, but they're trying to make the endeavor as painful, time consuming, and costly to the plat salesmen.
• Smedley then discussed the future of Station Cash/Marketplace, of which they are working on two major upgrades: One is for expansions and such to be available in game, the other is for artwork and prints to be sold, packaged, and shipped to you from in game, including your character. I believe WoW has a similar mechanic, and while I generally deplore anything taken from WoW in EQ, merchandise is meh.
• Free Realms was mentioned as having hit the 3million mark, and is closing on 4 million accounts.
• Thom, the new producer, went over UNderfoot and some general information such as events will run from July to launch of the expansion involving getting into the zones, but left a lot for the expansion panel. (Which he was later a part of.)

Friday night concluded with HEAVY drinking and me on the dance floor for 3+ hours. There are pictures, I hope to every deity known to man there is no video, becuase I cannot imagine my fat backside juking and jiving was anything short of frightening.


Saturday June 27th:

Thankfully, Saturday began without a hangover. The first event I saw was the premeire of "EverCracked", which is a semi-serious documentary on the phenomanon that is EQ. I won't spoil much, except to say it's funny and very moving at the same time. HIGHLY recommended, look for it to be fully completed and released. Props to Jace Hall and his team for the work.

After that was the EQ LiveGamer, which I didn't take part in so it was a lot of yakking, eating, drinking and spending money. The next panel was the Agency, which is an absolutely amazing game. I've seen it demo'd. Here are some features:

• Currently there is compatability between PS3 and PC versions seamlessly. It may or may not release this way, and it is the goal of the devs to do so, but only if it can be done and sustained without issue.
• The graphics are nothing short of top notch.
• The game works on a semi class basis, but this is based on your "Outfit", or gear rig. This can be changed whenever in a field office/city type area. There are open PvE areas, PvP areas, instanced PvE, etc, as well as "Instanct Action" plans for a variety of standard shooter game modes.
• There are two main types of game modes in the standard game, which are Action and Alias. Action is James Bond with a gun driving a car through a window, whereas during Alias mode you put on a suit/dress and sneak around areas. There are seamless switching such that in a single mission you might do both multiple times.
• Most missions reward loot on a medal system based on multiple factors like bonus objectives. The medal system encourages solo play in that it allows you to complete a mission set, but you need to group to get everything.
• Accounts will be shared across PS3/PC, so you can run the same account for both.
• Living Loot: Your loot mainly comes in the form of Card-based "Operatives" who essentially work for you, both indiivudally and with your guild, that are used both in missions and as part of a real-time crafting system for items/weapons.
• The art style is willfully designed to be realistic to an extent, but with a stylized flair to take it into the realm of extremism.

I also got to see a bit of the DCUO demo, which was a lot of fun. THe gameplay is simple, fast paced action beat-em-up, with PVP being an absolute beast of beating the piss out of each other. Controls/abilities seemed limited, but I was still learning the ropes and it is, frankly, not really my cup of tea MMO-wise. The sound and graphics are amazing, espeically as DC is approving everything. Jim Lee himself has done a lot of work with the engine and actual DC writers currently are assisting with the story. DC approved talent is being used for the voice acting (The devs could not confirm or deny Mark Hamill as Joker). It's very focused on instant action, with alerts going out to try and get people into PVP, as well as allowing for missions/quests to literally spring up as random events around the cityscape. ALl in all, it's shaping up nicely.

Finally came the part everyone waited for EQ-wise... the expansion panel. Some highlights as follows:

• No level increase - Due to the horrid tuning of SoD, as well as what they feel is good for the game, the devs are not increasing the level cap at this time in order to better balance content.
• There will be 2-3 spells/abilities released, as well as a "significant" number of AA.
• Raid progression will follow the SoD style of needing 1 requestor.
• There will be 13 new zones, and the theme is the Underfoot. The story is that the Underfoot is an area where all the gem, minerals, etc are pushed to Norrath for use by the races, and is also the afterlife for many of Brell's races. Unfortunately, that's quite a few races as Brell is very prolific, and this has caused issue in the past. Something, of course, is wrong otherwise we wouldn't go. The supplies are drying up, and contact has ceased.
• The zones look great so far, including some really good ice/water effects. However, it was brought up that SoD lacked variety in wepaon looks. The devs have noted they have requests in for scads of new designs, they have to see what is feasible from an art standpoint. There are, of course, new races and models, including an upgraded Coldain model for the coldain dwarves that have gone to Brell's plain as an afterlife.
• There will be more buff slots and possibly 1-2 more spell slots.
• Tradeskilling - No skill increases due to a hard code limit (Asked at all 3 Fan Faires I've attended with the SAME answer)
• Epics 3.0's -NO, just NO. F'n NO. Stop asking, becuase *I* don't wanna hear it at this point and I KNOW the devs don't.
• Plat increase due to mercs: The devs are reviewing the expansion as it's itemized, however it seems they were happy with the fact that mercs are deflating plat a bit. YAY economics!
• Achievment tracking - An achievment system will be added to the game as part of progression and other things, and there will be tracking window, and this means that you're going to get, essentially, progression tracking built into the game. THat's right, no more 170 billion hits to Rasper's or alla's, though that'll still happen for other reasons, just to figure out what you did and didn't do. This system MAY be pushed backwards as time allows to track older content
• Cast PRocs: As an answer to casters asking about weapon augs, an idea is being explored for "Cast Procs", where an effect on your weapon occurs as you cast spells. I'm interested to see how that goes, especially for hybrids and whether we have access.
• Game-style mission - There's a new mission being added to see how the EQ community likes the idea which is essentially a mini-game involving an almost sport-like event. It's hard to describe without seeing it.
  

Generally, the expansion looks pretty interesting, though some of the concepts are a little high-handed and given the oft-times hostile EQ community, could backfire.

I'll update this as I think of more. And questions, lemme know.

Thanks,
- Croix