Mills Lifestream's Suggestions on Game Improvements

Dear EverQuest Development Team

I am Mills Lifestream, level 50 cleric on The Rathe server. I have been playing EverQuest for quite awhile now, since beta 4. I have no intentions, as of now, of leaving EverQuest, as I believe it is the best thing out there MMRPG wise. However, the current state of EverQuest disturbs me. Fixes for problems in the game don't seem to come fast enough. I wish to address major problems within the game - problems that players can't really deal with for long. I beg you to read each change. Some do involve class balancing, but as a Level 50 char since April who has also been running a guild for quite awhile now, I think I've got at least a basic grasp on what changes need to be made ASAP.

General changes that should be made
Many heart aches have arisen from people looting NO DROP items they can't even use on accident, or looting a LORE item because they didn't check to see if it was LORE first. If the item is NO DROP, and the person looting can't use the item, please don't let them loot it. We lost a Bladestorm this way, and the person responsible still feels guilty, but that's only the icing on the cake of the problems caused by this. I would also like to see the same done with LORE. If they have the item already, and it is LORE, don't let them loot it! Please, there are other people in the party to think about, and most of the time people loot these items on accident.

Party buff toggle - I don't know about shamans, the king of buffs, but even as a cleric sometimes it does get a little annoying ( that is putting it lightly ) casting the same buff, on every party member, repetitively. Would it be THAT hard to make a toggle where the buff takes MANAREQUIRED x PARTYMEMBERS and buffs the entire party?

On the note of buffs, the Endure / Resist spells do not last long enough. They all fade so quickly it gets annoying having to put them back up.

Enemy Poison - This gets me kind of annoyed as a cleric. It seems that most high level poisons are dealt in DOT form, not poison form. What does this do? Well, it makes all of those poison healing spells you gave us useless. Is there really a reason to deal poison in a DOT form instead of making it actual poison that we can cure?

City guards are currently the target for easy money and easy EXP. They still drop steel weapons, which sell for a significant amount more than fine steel weapons. They also seem easy for their level. You might want to stop by Rathe sometime and check this out. Seems the way to a fast 50 is also coated with platinum now.

Ingame message boards are only in Qeynos and Highpass Hold. Please place them in other cities.

Many people lose items to bugs in the game, and aren't given them back by the GM, usually due to lack of proof. Exactly how are we suppose to get proof? Just so some of you other web sites know, Evil Eye sacks are NOT safe, and anything in your 1st melee slot that does not attack isn't safe either. We have had many item loses due to Evil Eye Sacks going poof for no good reason.

TRADE SKILL CHANGES

Blacksmithing -
* Put banded glove molds on the vendors
* studs and steel boning should be stackable.
* weapon molds on vendors
* Mass production of metal bits with higher skill check

Tailoring -
* Add Mask, Bracer, Mantle, Cloak, and Belt on vendors
* Low Quality pelt + pattern SHOULD equal raw hide
* Put Quiver instructions in tailoring book

Baking
* Give the skill some sort of purpose
* Put snake eggs on vendors

Brewery
* Fire beetle eyes stackable
* Give this skill a purpose

Pottery
* Fix Clay Deity
* Fix typos in pottery book
* small clay blocks SHOULD be stackable
* regular vials should not require a skin

Alchemy
* Allow Shamans to GAIN skill in Alchemy
* I feel STRONGLY that the following potions should be makable via

Alchemy
-Regen -Gate -Bind -SoW -Invis -Cure Disease -Cure Poison -SoC -See invis -Water breathing
I don't care HOW much you make them cost, just make them makable. (Well, nothing over 50p total for cost to make )

Tinkering
* Make more information available. Exactly where is a tinkerer suppose
to figure out how to tinker?

Poisoning
* Make Poison + Apply Poison should be one skill ( Exactly how do you miss applying poison on a dagger anyway? Make applying the poison a low skill check )
* Since most if not ALL poisons have 1 charge anyway, make them stackable.
* For all the work rogues go through, give them 5 - 10 shots of poison for each successful completion. Not 1.
* Make higher level poisoning reagents more available

Magicians - Without a form of evac, magicians are just lower level wizards at high levels. Pets are usually too unpredictable to be
allowed in higher level dungeons, and usually end up chasing something and getting the party killed. Even WITH pets, Magicians still need a form of evac so they have a chance at getting in parties over druids andwizards.
* Summonable Gate Ring - Level 40+ spell. 1 charge gate, No drop.
* Summonable Earring of Water Breathing - Level 30ish summon.
* Redo the summon armor spells so they aren't a buff. The buff does not seem to be as effective as the real stuff. So let them just summon a suit of no drop equipment on the target char in their party ( Bah, this is just extra. I admit it. But it would be nice for corpse recoveries to have a suit of chain armor and a summoned weapon. Nothing crappier then a naked tank. )

Bard - Bards suffer from worthless spells, and AE spells that upset the entire dungeon, thus training the party and getting the bard kicked from the group. Other spells have AE that should not due to the nature of the spell.
* Give the following spells a ZONE effect, not a radius effect
* Speed song *Water breathing song *Levitate song
Reason for these songs. Speed song is hell for a bard because of the area effect, Making SoW or Jboots a better option. OH, on that topic

FIX THE SPEED SONG + SOW BUG

Water breathing song - Exactly HOW many people would group up with a bard for water breathing purposes? That's right, none. Losing your bard means you die, and that makes this song a total waste in water zones since most people want endure breath or a fishbone earring.

Levitate song - Heh, don't look down. In fact, keep your eye on your bard, because if he walks out of range, you are so ****ed.

Ok, and one last song that needs work. Invis song. Question, HOW are you suppose to keep near your bard with invis song on without see invis? Give see invis to this song please.

Bards need a single target sleep song, as the AE sleep song upsets creatures behind walls in crowded dungeons.

--------------========*Intermission*==========---------------
* Be sure to visit the SNACK BAR
* Do not litter
* Just say No to Bleeding Brain

Zone specific problems -

Kedge Keep - Perfectly good zone going to waste. Now, I understand you have to upgrade the AI, but placing a few rare spawns, and a few named creatures with items never hurt a zone. I found my trip to Kedge enjoyable, as I believe many others would.

Permafrost - Behind the Ice Giant Diplomat, NOTHING is itemized. It would be nice to see one or two items behind here, or perhaps a rare spawn. Also, it would be nice... if Vox didn't ****ing kill herself like she has been for the past month.

Plane of Fear - Toning up the enemy difficulty, Good Making it so enemies can see you from out of nowhere, thus you get
attacked by too many at once, making the zone near impossible - Bad

Solusek B - I'm going to work on Nagafen some. I hope Nagafen is doable by 3 - 4 partys, otherwise I'll come back and write a nice rant. As if sorting loot in this game isn't hard enough as it is. Not only that, but last big Nagafen raid I was in was one of the most unenjoyable experiences to me due to server lag and too many people being there to control. You really need to consider that the enemy has to be doable. Even then, you have to realize that you can't just up the number of people required to kill a mob to try to hide the server overcrowding problems we are having.

Dynamic Quests - Near Non-existent. I don't want to HEAR this as a solution, because I rarely ever see a dynamic quest, and the loot from the ones I have seen have been horrible for the level of the mob.

Universally needed items - Some items are needed by every player in the game, and the rare nature of them has caused problems ingame.
* Fishbone earring - On approximately a 6 hour spawn ( yes we know the spawn time, and yes, every time it is nearing spawn time, Qeynos Hills fills with people ready to end poor little Hadden's life ).
* Journeyman Boots - Everyone wants a pair, but if you want a pair, you better get in line. Najena is packed with Jboot campers all the time. Period.

Solutions - Place the items ELSEWHERE. You did it with the Najenas book, why not do it for these items? OR, how about a Quest for these items since they are needed as much as they are?

Faction - Old dueling faction hit still effects many. Some faction we lost is near impossible, if not impossible to regain. Not only that, but many high level quests involve royally ****ing over your faction. Is this our reward for wanting to do something new in the game? Just how many paladins do you actually think won't want a Soulfire. PLEASE make town factions a little more feasible to gain. Merchant faction especially.

Aviaks and Centaurs need a faction hit to them.

Lastly, this isn't real important as a whole, but my cleric put more than 50 training points into 2 fields of specialization before you guys fixed it. Now neither of those fields will train. Would be nice if I could specialize in Alteration, being a cleric and all.

I guess thats all I have to say. To all of my readers out there besides the Verant dev team, I really don't care about how formal this presentation looks. I just care about changes that need to be made. Changes that should have been made awhile back. I won't rest until I see at least an effort made to try to correct some of these issues with EverQuest. I care too much about the game to do otherwise.

Mills Lifestream