Ragefire & Star Wars Galaxy hits BBC News

The EverQuest Ragefire controversy has even hit the news wires and may even have an effect on the developement of Star Wars Galaxy! The following story was posted today in the BBC News, Technology section by BBC News Online technology correspondent Mark Ward...
Wednesday, 24 July, 2002, 08:23 GMT 09:23 UK Cyber heroes forced to wait for glory BY Mark Ward BBC News Online technology correspondent The life of a hero was not supposed to be like this. You can walk the Planes of Power where gods do dwell and have stood fearless before the mightiest creatures that call Everquest their home. Your history is one of glorious deeds but now, to complete the epic quest that will make your life as a priest complete, you have to stand in line and wait like a peasant at the village pump. Perhaps Everquest should be renamed Everqueue. Waiting room The huge popularity of the online adventure game Everquest is causing problems for some players keen to complete key tasks for the characters they control. Characters in Everquest assume a profession while adventuring in the online world. As they travel, complete tasks and defeat monsters they accrue experience making them more skilled in their chosen profession. Whether they choose to be a warrior, thief, wizard or priest, all have the chance to complete an epic quest that rewards them with a hugely powerful magical item. The artefacts are coveted because they cannot be sold or passed on to other players. Completing the epic quest can soak up weeks of playing time as characters and their fellow adventurers journey through the continents and caves of Everquest completing all parts of the task. But the epic quest of the game's clerics (priests and healers) is causing big problems. "I should see my shot at the epic in December sometime," said Lance Berg, who runs a powerful cleric in Everquest. Mr Berg is currently number 52 in the list of clerics queueing to complete the epic task. Three months ago he was at number 67. Many of the other Everquest servers that host replicas of the game world have waiting lists just as long. Red and dead The bottleneck is caused by the need to kill a red dragon called Ragefire. Monsters rarely permanently die in Everquest, instead they respawn some time after they have been killed. Unfortunately the Ragefire dragon only respawns every few days and the timer that triggers its re-appearance is re-started when the Everquest servers are taken offline for maintenance. "Clerics are also one of the most common characters at the high-end of the game," said player Jeremiah Kristal, "so you have a significant percentage of the characters all competing for a single, three to five day spawn." On a few Everquest servers some players are spending days of real time hanging around in the game world just for Ragefire to appear. On some servers the appearance of Ragefire sparks a free-for-all which sees player-controlled characters turn on each other. "It's not uncommon to see 45 characters from 3 guilds sitting at that spot all hoping to attack first," said Mr Kristal. Another player James Grahame said Verant, the makers of Everquest, have resisted suggestions that the red dragon should respawn more often. "Verant rightly sees the cleric epic as a very powerful item," he said, "and in Everquest, power and rarity usually go hand-in-hand." This problem of too many players and not enough for them to do could strike other online game worlds. Galactic hopes One game that is trying to avoid the bottlenecks is Star Wars: Galaxies which is due to launch later this year. The game is set in the Universe laid out in the Star Wars films, books and comics and takes place during the Galactic civil war after the destruction of the first Death Star. Although players of the game will not be able to take on the roles of key personalities of Star Wars such as Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, they will be able to play Jedi knights, star pilots and bounty hunters. Lucas Arts is working with EverQuest creators Sony on the Star Wars: Galaxies game and is capping the number of players that can be on any one server to limit population density. Players will be able to buy or build their own homes on the various cities and if too many people crowd into one location the playability of the game could suffer. The game's release is also likely to carried out in stages to ensure a slow build up of players on the servers supporting the online Universe. ************************************************************ You can read this and other tech news on BBC News.
Tags: General, News

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priests
# Aug 12 2002 at 3:18 PM Rating: Decent
I can understand the hurt feelings of our up and coming priest classes. This is a factor that needs to be addressed by Verant as well. Ragefire is not the only mob that this happens to. I have seen this happen with lower level 45 mobs being taken out. As to the rarety of the clerics item, it is assured to drop off of Rage. However, I do feel the item drops all across the game are beginning to be mindless. For example (I am a level 56 monk, I have been playing in Karnor%
priests
# Aug 12 2002 at 3:17 PM Rating: Decent
I can understand the hurt feelings of our up and coming priest classes. This is a factor that needs to be addressed by Verant as well. Ragefire is not the only mob that this happens to. I have seen this happen with lower level 45 mobs being taken out. As to the rarety of the clerics item, it is assured to drop off of Rage. However, I do feel the item drops all across the game are beginning to be mindless. For example (I am a level 56 monk, I have been playing in Karnor's Castle now for approximately 9 levels now. To this day I still camp inside this zone in the hopes of looting a monks dream weapon T-Staff. Well needless to say to this day I have not seen it drop and the rarety of this item is rediculous. This with many many other items in this world need to be re-aligned. As mentioned by the player above. we can not make Everquest a full time job trying to get something that will anhance our characters. Verant please Adjust items for a faster rate of drops.)
Ragefire Spawn
# Jul 26 2002 at 12:51 AM Rating: Default
For a long time now, I've wondered why Verant would make all the quests, especially the epics so predictable? Why not add randomness? For instance, Ragefire could spawn in any mid to high level zone at any time. The ancient cyclops that people camp in SRo or OOT could spawn in any number of places. I don't believe that every epic should be able to have a complete walkthru. Some of the quests should require some strategy and even luck with regard to finding the right NPC. Maybe give each player a specific mob to hunt and kill for a final test. I also believe that epic quests should be a test of one person's skills and abilities, epics should not be able to be done in groups or guilds. They should be a test of one person and whether or not they've become skilled enough playing that character to overcome whatever test is presented to them. Maybe when you come to that final mob, and say the key phrase to activate the epic mob, all others would be banished from the room, zone whatever. Right now, a strong guild can get epic pieces for their members, whether they are skilled or not. Having a guild help with some parts is fine, but I really believe that there should be at least one test that can't be solved by a walkthru or a strong guild.
RE: Ragefire Spawn
# Jul 31 2002 at 2:47 AM Rating: Decent
I completely agree with the idea of limiting the required/allowed raid size in each character's final epic ''event''. Much of Everquest has lost its family atmosphere in preference to large raid guilds. Much of Everquest has been softened in the fact that the game content calls for more people, not more skill....more people, not more friendship. Sure, you can now camp Ragefire for a week because its your turn at him...but do you have the Numbers? Can you bring the ''force'' to assure your rights to see some return for your REAL life investment? I am all for game content to reflect the skills of the player, instead of reflecting the sheer time invesment and sheer numbers of your guild. Unfortunately, numbers of people and time investment = $$. Its a Great Sony cash cow..but it can only go so far. Any resolution of the Ragefire issue will have to address the real reason ''bottlenecks'' are present in the first place. The resolution will need to address both game content and also profitability. POP will introduce zones that will restrict zone population to one 6man group. These new zones will be available to any group that wishes to enter, and will be duplicate zones catering to different, discrete groups. I think this is the evolution eq needs to take to bring some sanity back to the game. Yes...move Ragefire to one of the new ''size-restricted'' zones in the Plane of Flame !
Yep, too much patience no strategy/skill
# Jul 26 2002 at 1:40 PM Rating: Decent
***
1,075 posts

Its all patience and who can zergling rush there the fastest.

"Maybe give each player a specific mob to hunt and kill for a final test."

I think daoc kind of does that on quests, or said they did. One person might be told to go kill one thing and another another.

AO does single player missions, though not in an epic quest way. That has to be built into the game though.

Verant just doesn't like to admit they are wrong on big things like this or have to totally rebuild the game. You can bet that future games won't do things this same way.

Epic to me does not mean

1) have to be jobless to hang around at spawn for a week
2) have to have a zergling guild on 24/7 ready to jump if it spawns
3) have to trip over other people in a rush to kill it or wait 9 months (where someone might beat you to kill it anyway)
waiting .........& lag
# Jul 25 2002 at 4:21 PM Rating: Default
I'm new to eq and i already see all thease problems.Mean people ..being cussed at for asking a question and big guilds hogging areas for days.
Something needs to be done because alot of people will not stay.I went to lvl 20 in like less than 2 weeks so i've seen alot already.Oh and the awful lag in the Bazarr, i had to leave and i have a very fast and new puter.We want to stay, we want to enjoy it but there's alot to be fixed.......
we are paying ..so we have a right for our chance in things to.
Too Much
# Jul 24 2002 at 7:46 PM Rating: Default
I have been playing since beta. I own and have developed 3 different accounts over the years playing EQ. I have also cancelled my accounts multiple times due to camping frustrations in the game. Its clear that the game offers something not equaled in other games, because I keep returning to it. It is also clear that as time marches on, the number of uber players grows. The problem with the game is population. There are simply too many players hogging the same camps for hours, days and yes sometimes weeks at a time. There are networks of guilds, and players, who hold camps for days on end. The reason I use 3 accounts is so that I can spread out my characters in areas I wish to hunt, or camps I need to watch for quests. It is rediculous but there are times I log in as many as 10-12 of my characters befor I hit a camp that isn't occupied. Imagine the time traveling to camps that turns out to be a waste of time because 50 other people are already there. Its insane to have to pay for entertainment, then have to deal with all the little Hitlers of the virtual world who think EQ was developed just for their pleasure. I for one am ready to see online role playing games evolve to the point where playing the game isn't like having another JOB.
Hmmmm
# Jul 24 2002 at 6:47 PM Rating: Decent
ok i can see everyones want to speed up the respawn of Rage and the problem with other uber guilds getting to the spot faster... however this IS a VERY powerful item we are talkin about here not some Rusty long sword... as frustrating as it may be thats life... Uber guilds ARE asses sometimes <I SAID SOMETIMES for all who are in them.. Smiley: smile > and those that KS other just to get the item are lame to say the least yes and Violate their own "Guild Rules" thats just the way the penny drops... the best one can do it try to get a GM involved but as the before mentioned post that never works... my suggestion is to /log befor the pop and if you do end up with the first hit and they KS you Post on their guild forum for everyone who passes through the site to show how they really are...you never know u might end up with that Uber guilds help... especally if you have proof that the guild went against their own rules... <guild leaders and officers HATE to have their integrity questioned and ever more when u prove it... Smiley: wink >

but all in all, the best thing you can hope for is peoples honesty and help, the spawn times wont be changed no matter how much people talk about cancling there 3 accounts..:) well thats my Smiley: twocents im sure people wont like my point of view but hay that will happen no matter where you go... Smiley: smile See you all and Good Hunting...
ragefire woes
# Jul 24 2002 at 5:55 PM Rating: Default
verant needs to get with the program about ragefire. you sit in skyfire and vigilantly wait for this spawn while all the time many other more powerful guilds pop in and out checking the spawn or they too, sit and wait. then he spawns, you contact ur guild and begin to kitethis guy waiting for help to arrive. during this time another more powerful guild with many porters pops on the scene and attacks the mob you have been kiting with a damage spell and snare. they take the kill and the final cleric epic piece. even though verant says the rule is first to engage has right to the mob and interferance from others is wrong. well go ahead and contact a GM tell them what happened and wait to get the answer" oh well sorry theres nothing i can do".the power guilds with 100 members or more always get this guy due to sheer numbers of people enabling them to respond quicker in force. when you see these guilds every cleric has their epic as well as their alts. meanwhile the rest of us just hope and pray that sooner or later they will be lucky enough to help their guild with this awesome and necessary item for high end raids. the way verant has this set up the only people getting ragefire are the ones who need it the least. thank you verant for the consideration of all of us who choose to be in small guuilds with friends. oh, and guess what i too pay that $22.00 a month to play...think about it!!! if starwars turns out to be the game i think it will be ill just cancell my eq accts...yes thats three accts not one!!! i assure you there will be others leaving the world of eq if you dont do something to rectify this issue.
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