Recently, we had an opportunity to ask some very specific
questions of the Developers on things related to PvP and
Crafting. We took this opportunity to get "down and
dirty" on some topics that have been buzzed about in the
community, and frankly, I'm rather pleased with the responses!
There is more insight to some of the things we as players
perceive as issues, while the Developers see them as game-play
effects and logical conclusions to an action.
The questions and responses regarding PvP and Crafting...
interesting combination, I know. 
Stratics: In PvP, in order to gain faction - credit for
the kill - players must actually hit their targets. However,
healers are a supporting class, and often do not get an
opportunity to get a hit in. Therefore, they are typically
left without faction as a result. Are there any plans in the
works to change this to make it easier for players to build
competent groups and all members of the group to receive
equal credit for their role in the successful encounter?
Archonix:
Shortly after the PvP servers launched, we changed the way
credit is determined for a kill. While everyone in the group
who is within reward range gains experience/status/and
possible infamy/fame modifications just for being a part of
the group, each player will have to have gained some form of
hate with the target to gain faction from the kills.
For melee classes and casters they can gain this hate via
attacking the target. For healers, if they wish to play a
more defensive role, then actively healing or buffing their
group during combat will also add hate to their victims, and
in turn reward faction for the kills.
The main reason behind faction working a bit differently
is that dishonorable kills factor in the amount of hit points
of the target when they were engaged. It is quite possible to
lose faction for a dishonorable kill. We did not want to
penalize everyone in the group for the actions of a single
member assuming they were responsible for a dishonorable
kill.
Stratics: Combat mode. This is something that makes
many of us crazy. It's been said there's a special
calculation for how long this lasts. However, when someone
evacs or runs out of range and zones... the attacker remains
in combat mode. No amount of begging and pleading shuts this
down. And, being in this mode does not allow health or power
to regenerate, leaving you vulnerable for the next attacker.
Are there any plans to change this?
Aeralik: The
amount of time you remain in combat once your target flees
depends on the amount of hate you generated. Hate decays in
both PvE and PvP based fights although the PvP decay is
faster. So the more hate you build up, the longer you will
stay in combat when your opponent flees.
Using evac causes the player to wipe their hate list and
remove themselves from any opponent's hate list.
However, it doesn't remove harmful effects placed on the
character. So once the character finishes zoning from the
evac, any harmful spells placed on them will begin to add
hate again causing you to go back in combat. Zoning is
similar where it clears the hate list of anyone who zones
while also removing them from all players who hated them.
Stratics: Calculating faction, fame and
status. How do we know what it is, how to get it, etc.
Gamers, especially EQ gamers, love numbers and stats and
comparing things... Yep, many of us are geeks in reality,
lol. We are perplexed because we don't get the mechanic for
faction and fame, why we lose so much to a large group (it
takes less for a group to kill me, why do I lose so much
more?). At least explain it to us so we have a clue what to
yell about, please.
Archonix:
We currently do not have any plans to allow players to view
the numerical data behind the title system. We want the
system to be based on the titles you see, and not number
crunching. That being said however, here is a bit more
information about how title rank modifications are
calculated:
Fame and Infamy are setup as a zero-sum system. When you
kill someone, and title rankings are awarded, the loss and
gain are exactly the same. The only exception to this rule
would be players who are unranked, and have never gained
fame/infamy, as you cannot go below a certain value.
Killing someone who has a higher total fame/infamy value
will reward you more then you would have lost had you died.
The reverse also holds true.
Rewards are calculated based on the total members in your
group/anyone who had hate on the target when they died.
Rewards are only added to those who are within title range.
Essentially, if a target would have given you X fame/infamy
if you had killed them solo, they would give you X/6 if you
were in a full group. The target still loses the normal
amount. The system appears set up to give the larger reward
for a single kill to a soloer, but over time a group stands
to gain more fame/infamy by making up for it in larger
numbers of wins.
Stratics: Bugs/exlploits for avoiding the pain of
death. As of now, the ones that really get people going are:
A) Jumping to your death after attacked - this kills you but
the attacker gets no credit for the kill at all, no faction,
and yet you appear on their recent list, meaning you can then
attack them with nothing to lose. This is very popular in
Kingdom of Sky... and B) Plug-pulling and/or windowing to
avoid appearing in the next zone - people near death will
manage to hit the zoneline, get a dishonorably fled, and not
appear on the other side. Are these exploits, and should be
reported? Or a game flaw that is in the works of being fixed?
Archonix:
A recent addition that came along with Game Update 25 fixed
"Skydiving" as a means to avoid granting your
aggressor rewards for your death. As long as you have done at
least 50% damage to your target, they will not be able to
avoid PvP death by falling to their death.
Aeralik:
Plug pulling in general should be much better after Game
Update 25 released. The person pulling the plug should stop
as soon as they are flagged linkdead, allowing players to
finish them off easier.
Stratics: Crafting recipe changes. Much has been said
about the changes since GU24... some favorable, and some not
so favorable. What was behind some of the changes to recipes
with GU24? Many food and drink recipes now require roots and
various other odd little items that make little sense. Also,
was the ease in getting ingredients also the idea behind
requiring different metals for healer and mage spells?
Beghn:
We considered many things when we changed the recipes in Game
Update 24. We wanted to allow more freedom in crafting to the
general community. With the old system it took hours to make
a full set of armor even if the recipe was far beneath your
current level.
This was a hampering point to newer players of Everquest
II. We wanted the known crafters in the community to be able
to help everyone instead of focusing on their current level
range. With this in mind we started on the no sub-combine
system.
Now you can put out a full set of armor or other item
equivalently in a few minutes instead of hours. With this
said there were changes to recipes to make some of the
harvestables more desirable so they'd have a greater use in
the world. Food and Drink recipes requiring roots/loam/metal
things like that were to introduce a greater balance to the
Provisioner class.
Some reasons behind using certain things would be that
roots can be used to make bread like substances by grinding
them up. As well they can add flavor to various foods. Loam
is more like a filter in recipes. If you notice that loam is
only found in recipes that are "distilled"
substances. Metals are more used as a conduit for the recipes
-- there are no little metal pieces hiding in the kids' candy
that you're passing out in Freeport. Think of it more as
using a disposable cookie sheet.
Healer/Mage/Scout/Fighter spell components were something
that we looked into for a while. We wanted to spread out who
uses what rare materials more than it previously was. Loams
can be used to make Scout and Fighter spells but that's it,
while Gems and Precious Metal can be used in other recipes
besides Spells.
Stratics: With the new crafting changes to single
combines, the XP gain is much slower and more difficult as
crafters gain levels. Without being able to make subcombines
for additional experience, and the vitality cost has been
increased, crafters have once again felt the negative side to
a major game update. When implementing these changes, were
these issues considered? And if so, what was the thought
behind going forward?
Beghn:
The amount of experience gained was taken into consideration
when making the new crafting system.
Useable item recipes called Finished recipes have always
given more experience than the sub-component recipes, so the
potential for experience per hour has actually grown.
The limiting factor in the number of recipes that you can
complete in an hour is raw resources now. We've increased the
availability of resources in the world through multiple item
harvests to allow more access to these items.
As for experience, what we will be looking into in the
near future is the raw amount of experience available to
certain classes that get more recipes per level than other
classes which gives them greater potential for first time
discovery experience than other classes. An example of this
would be Woodworkers vs. say a Sage. We'll be looking into
trying to even things out a little more than they are today.
Stratics: We know that the removal of crafting
societies was with good intentions, but now the crafting
zones, especially in some areas like Castleview Hamlet and
Nettleville Hovel are overly crowded and most crafting tables
have five or six people in them. Are there any plans to
alleviate this?
Dymus: Yes, we're planning on making more of the
crafting devices available within the world at large, not
just in the crafting instances.
This will be especially true throughout the cities (which
include Kelethin), but also in other locations throughout the
world. Places like Windstalker Village, the Crossroads,
Maj'Dul, and others may start getting some devices within the
area which can be used by characters for crafting.
Not everywhere will be as convenient as the tradeskill
society locations with all the materials right at your
fingertips, but it will give some room to branch out. In
addition, some of the tinkering ideas we have been
considering might allow you to create a tradeskill device
nearly anywhere in the world for a short period of time for
those emergency crafting needs.
Stratics: Tradeskill Writs. Many of us miss these, and
are patiently waiting for their return. Can you tell us what
the scoop is on this subject?
Dymus:
The first set of tradeskill writs are currently planned for a
future Game Update. The new 'rush order' writs are timed
quests, which will require pristine crafted materials and
should be more tailored to the individual professions.
Because there will be a chance of failure with these writs
the rewards will be greater than those in the old system.
These new writs are the first step in what we want to do
overall with crafting and the content for that portion of the
game. They will not be the last style of writ or quests that
crafters will see.
Stratics: With each new expansion, there is a new
housepet. Desert of Flames gave us the pet monkey. Kingdom of
Sky, the carnivorous plant. Can you tell us if there is a pet
in the works for the Echoes of Faydwer, and what it is?
Dymus: There is a house pet in the works for Echoes
of Faydwer. We cannot tell you much about it at this point
(it's a bit early) other than to say it is unique to any of
the pets previously given out. It also will be the first pet
to interact with some of the others you might have within
your house.
Stratics: Is Blackguard still suffering from
Arachibutyrophobia?
Blackguard: The fear of peanut butter sticking to the
roof of one's mouth is neither uncommon nor something
to joke about!
Luckily, I've discovered that tempering peanut butter with
jelly in a sandwich dramatically reduces the likelihood that
the peanut butter will stick to the roof of your mouth. Also,
I enjoy peanut butter so much that the chance of it sticking
to the roof of my mouth is worth it. Mmm....
We would like to thank each and every one of you for taking
the time to give us such thorough and detailed responses to these
inquiries... it has given us more insight into these aspects of
the game. And, I don't know about anyone else, but I can't wait
to see what's in store for the future of crafting and writs!
