UH… OKAY… THAT’S SPECIAL [Author: Lum the Mad]
Verant started updating their “In Development” page again, and they snuck in a doozy…
Evaluation of High Level Epic Encounters on Hold: We’re holding off any re-evaluation of high level epic encounters in Velious until after integration of server-side filtering. This is due to the potential effect of the change, as it may raise the soft-cap on the number of people you can bring on a raid. Before, it was widely held to be true that bringing more than 30 or 40 people would result in many linkdeaths. Following the change, the next out-of-game softcap is the ability to maintain framerate. We are not opposed to the idea of having encounters that take over 100 people to overcome, we just want to be sure that if that’s what’s necessary, the technology supports it.
I’m sorry, maybe I’m just not smoking enough crack lately, but this is just completely bugfuck insane to me. Please, someone, anyone explain to me what reward is justified by mobilizing over one hundred high level players for one encounter. Frankly, if I have to mobilize every uberguild on my server, which would be what it would take to get the numbers Anonymous EQ Designer On Crack is talking about, just to kill Foozle the Smelly, frankly, the only reward that justifies that level of organization, power, and accomplishment is a fucking Reset The Entire Goddam Server sword that procs Delete Every Fucking EQ Account as an effect. THAT might be worth it. Nothing else. And knowing Verant, it probably will mean you get FoH, Afterlife, Drow, Da’Kor, and who knows who else, just to loot a Rusty Broadsword, a Cloth Tunic, and 3 silver pieces.
Because, you know, the journey is the reward. It’s not about loot, right? It’s about the gameplay, the experience! Yeah, that’s why everyone floods into the planes, deals with massive linkdeath (which hopefully this patch fixed — jury’s out on that) and player death not for loot! It’s so they can see what creative things Verant did with the same models you’ve seen the previous 59 levels!
I’m not bitter. Nope. I’m just wondering where the hell I’m going to ever find 99 other warm bodies to line up and die so I can get +5 STR on my Bracer of Cat Ass.