Dear Aggro

Well, the Everquest II's Producer Letter written by Scott Hartsman was recently posted on EQ2Players.com. It's notable for it's clarity and relevance. Scott discusses specific gameplay changes rather than engaging in philosophical ramblings.

I really don't get why it's called a "letter" as it just looks like a forum post or news summary to me. But to keep in the mail oriented spirit of things, I am going to be commenting on Scott's letter by pretending to answer the letters of imaginary EQII players. Yeah, I know, sounds bizarre to me too.

Dear Aggro,

I like to collect things. Rubber band balls, stamps, airplane vomit bags (unused of course - I'm not crazy), comics, Mourning CD's and poisonous reptiles. So when I found out about collection quests in EQII, I went crazy! But then I realized that they count against my 50 quest limit! Arrrgh! What do I do? I have 49 collection quests and 1 quest to help some guy named Vandis and I'm not getting anywhere! Also, my wife says she's going to leave me!

Collection Colin

Dear Colin,

Have no fear! Collection quests no longer count against your active quest limit and they have they very own tab now. So collect all you want! I've played around with the new collection quest tab in the quest window and it's pretty handy. I happen to be a big collection quest fan myself.

Let's hope SOE will soon add a title for those who complete over 20 or 40 collection quests like they do for heritage quests with the "Lore Seeker" type surnames. That would be great. Also, interest in collection quests seems to really drop off right around the time you're of high enough level to finish the Feerott leaves one. How about having raid mobs drop a few random collection items for some new high-end collection quests? This would let higher level players continue their collection fun.

And, Colin, you're going to need those additional slots for quests as there are some quest improvements on the way including tweaks to difficulty and rewards. Quests will soon be labeled group or solo and, I believe, be sortable by the zone the next step of the quest is in, though the specifics on that are a little unclear to me.

As for your wife, I can't imagine why she would want to leave you. The woman must have serious psychological problems. I advise you to start collecting the business cards of good divorce attorneys immediately!

-Aggro

Dear Aggro,

Hey, Aggro, your site sucks. You never once wrote about the ongoing combat changes. What is wrong with you? Why do you suck? Also, you suck!

-Britney Spears

Hi Britney,

Yes, you're absolutely right: I never once mentioned the ongoing combat changes. That's because they are in the proverbial "works." I prefer not to comment on things that may never be implemented or may be implemented in another form entirely. For example, do you remember all the forums craziness when quest rewards were going to be made no-trade? Well, that never happened on live.

I almost wrote about the recent GEB/Robe of the Invoker "nerf" but I'm glad I didn't because the methodology of the tweaking was tweaked itself. All you need to know for now is that the combat changes are still being worked on. Also, you will be able to respec your traits and traditions when it does go live. When it does, I'd suggest you hold off on that respec for a bit until you see how everything works out. Give my love to K-Fed and the people at Starbucks.

-Aggro

Part the Second tomorrow...