[VG] Producer's Letter

[Hathe]

Helms? It only took them a year. Thanks for all the reviews, I'll be trying out this game again over the holidays.

[CylusSoulreaver]

Originally Posted by Hathe

I'm sure they wrote it down on some napkins and left them behind for the new dev team. Joking aside, sony is in charge now, obviously the game will be turned around and made their way. So much for brain storming for the future, eh?

The people (aka, John Hegner, Steve Williams, Lindsay Morgan Lockhart and Brad Lyke) that were ultimately responsible for VG lore were all fired during the recent SoE culling 'cept for Lindsay. Lindsay, whom was let go during the May culling, currently works on EQ2 and does an excellent job, from what I understand. Excellent job may be an understatement, heh...she's amazing.

Point being, Sony fired any and everyone with a clue about VG's lore. Yes, I could sit here and bitch about Butler being too busy playing WoW to "teach" me how to make a game, but, in the long run, please don't bitch at the VG diplomacy team for a lack of lore.

The diplomacy team worked their arses off, very late at night; most everyone was overworked (we were expected to work 10am-10pm for 7 of the 8 months previous to launch, without overtime, yet also at a very shitty waige). Point being, I always knew that I could BS with any of diplo team in the long run on any night because I always knew that they'd be working extra hours to make the game better...

...their presence was expected, welcome and is currently missed...

[Aphextwin]

Originally Posted by Rezz

No kidding, what's in your machine exactly that it ran you 4k? I built a machine in late feb for 1700 that ran VG at max settings with 1-3 second chunk times, maybe 5 when I entered a chunk I hadn't ever been to before. And it runs it slightly better now, though chunk times remain the same.

This is just another issue with VG, spotty performance across different machines. My PC is not a snail (Dell XPS), and depending on what chunk I am crossing I can sit there for 2 seconds or what seems like a life time it varies greatly.

[Draegan]

Kojan was lag free when I played last night.

Thestra was full of fps/lag drops.

I think I might play again tonight. Which classes are still broken so I don't bother playing them? Last time I checked Druids and Rogues were broken (2 classes I played at release).

[tad10]

Originally Posted by Draegan

Kojan was lag free when I played last night.

Thestra was full of fps/lag drops.

I think I might play again tonight. Which classes are still broken so I don't bother playing them? Last time I checked Druids and Rogues were broken (2 classes I played at release).

Rogues are pretty good now. I don't play a druid but their general absence at the higher levels suggets that they could use a little love for soloing. On the other hand, druids tend to be one of those classes in demand by almost all raiding guilds. And there appears to be some APW gear aimed only at Druids (vgbow had an arcane caster ring with +healing that seemed amazingly stupid for any other class but druids).

[tad10]

Originally Posted by Agraza

what do you do in end game when you're not raiding APW? work on alts?

Well I:

1. Farm Xennu shards to get the Xennu items (eb mask, inviz bracers, lev cloak, kick-ass jump boots that stack with monk jump).

2. Work on dip (still trying to get teh +speed barding).

3. (since last patch) try help my guildees crafting brethren farm the new crafting recipes.

4. Help guildees farm the various dropped/learned spells (every class has spells that are dropped from various boss mobs or learned from combat with various trash mobs).

4. Work on crafting (very, very rarely).

I don't like alts either.

[I'm Rich Bitch]

Originally Posted by CylusSoulreaver

The diplomacy team worked their arses off, very late at night; most everyone was overworked (we were expected to work 10am-10pm for 7 of the 8 months previous to launch, without overtime, yet also at a very shitty waige).

Whenever people work like this the outcome will not be quality work. Even in college if you cram for a test you will do mediocre at best. When you know the material and can relax the night before a test and get a good night's sleep, you will do well.

In the workplace, especially software development, if people work those hours something is really wrong and the product will suffer as a result.

[I'm Rich Bitch]

Originally Posted by tad10

Well I:

1. Farm Xennu shards to get the Xennu items (eb mask, inviz bracers, lev cloak, kick-ass jump boots that stack with monk jump).

2. Work on dip (still trying to get teh +speed barding).

3. (since last patch) try help my guildees crafting brethren farm the new crafting recipes.

4. Help guildees farm the various dropped/learned spells (every class has spells that are dropped from various boss mobs or learned from combat with various trash mobs).

4. Work on crafting (very, very rarely).

I don't like alts either.

Your post sounds like work. When do you have fun or is that the goal of this game?

[Draegan]

That basically sounds like what every MMO player does outside Raiding if they don't like PVP.

[CylusSoulreaver]

Originally Posted by I'm Rich Bitch

Whenever people work like this the outcome will not be quality work. Even in college if you cram for a test you will do mediocre at best. When you know the material and can relax the night before a test and get a good night's sleep, you will do well.

In the workplace, especially software development, if people work those hours something is really wrong and the product will suffer as a result.

I'm not unaware, either of the software or college analogy (being able to schedule your own finals in college was pretty damn sweet). I currently have a milestone every 7-8 weeks, which is a much better way to handle the situation. Yea, we'll have a crunch near the end but spreading out mini-crunches rather than have 8 straight months of crunch is a, obviously, much better situation. Looking back, I get more and more pissed that we never got paid overtime, heh.

The diplo team did a great job given the amount of resources it had (definately wasn't treated on an equal level with crafting/adventuring) and they deserve a lot of credit. That is, if anyone is even giving credit where it it due these days

[Grizzlebeard]

All stale joking about VG aside, do the current players ever expect anything to come from the game in all honesty? There were aspects of the game I enjoyed and even miss to some extent, although, if I'm realistic I have to face up to the fact there will probably never be an expansion worth a damn because I'd imagine the game is, and will always be, run with a skeleton staff, barring some miraculous influx of subs. That coupled with the fact updates, such as APW, take over half a year to roll out really doesn't bode well for people who enjoy progression and variety from their games.

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by Grizzlebeard

All stale joking about VG aside, do the current players ever expect anything to come from the game in all honesty? There were aspects of the game I enjoyed and even miss to some extent, although, if I'm realistic I have to face up to the fact there will probably never be an expansion worth a damn because I'd imagine the game is, and will always be, run with a skeleton staff, barring some miraculous influx of subs. That coupled with the fact updates, such as APW, take over half a year to roll out really doesn't bode well for people who enjoy progression and variety from their games.

Well, the future raid content will only take a fraction what it took to make APW. When we first started testing alot of shit had to be changed in order for us to raid. The strikethrough that they had to add or people were getting basically death touched. Mob abilities overlapping and doing massive amounts of damage and death touching you. lol Then there was bardsong lag. You also had rescule locking which changed alot of players abilities. (i currently like how it is now, casters actually have a chance to get owned if they overnuke.)

APW took ALOT of fine tuning as the dev's had to know what they could and could not do. I think when we were just about done, they said that future raid content will be tons faster and that they would probably just need 1-2 guilds testing it.


As for the expansion who knows. I enjoy the game. I know what the game is, and i know what it wont ever be. As long as they can push out content for me and my guild to enjoy, thats all that really matters to me.

one of our kills yesterday. the Prime Warden in Nusibe.

[Ashes Emberblade]

What UI is that?

[kcxiv]

i didnt take that SS, but i am pretty sure its Core.

[Elidroth Renato]

The Kojan Isles that were in release were a very small part of the continent planned out. That area was one of my favorite parts of the world for sure, and I'd really like to see it get released.

Also, the music that Nino did for Shensho Ni (one of the cities on Kojan) was easily my favorite piece he wrote.