Feldon From EverQuest2.com:
EverQuest II – Destiny of Velious will be available for pre-order beginning on Tuesday, January 18, 2011! This exciting new expansion to the world of Norrath will be released on February 22, 2011.
We’ll have more information about the pre-order options on Tuesday, so be sure to check EverQuest2.com for all the details. For more information on Destiny of Velious, please see Announcing EverQuest II – Destiny of Velious.
Keep watching EverQuest2.com for more official information about Destiny of Velious, and don’t miss the new DoV note from Dave “Smokejumper” Georgeson, EverQuest II Producer, over on the forums. Click the “Join the Discussion” link for your version of EverQuest II below to read the note and chime in the conversation.
There is no word on whether Destiny of Velious will have a Retail box or be Digital Download only, if the Retail box will contain any special items, and whether last year’s frustrating staggered start date plan will be repeated.
I have a bad feeling about this.
How can anyone justify pre-ordering when there has been zero information given to us about what the expansion contains? With everything that SoE has been doing lately, I will need some reassurance that this expansion is worth it for me to even begin thinking about a pre-order.
It made me chuckle when I seen the release date pushed back to 2 days before Rifts early start.
I don’t know if 2 weeks will be enough for SOE to fix any major issues.
I agree with Jason S though, it will be very hard for me to preorder this thing because I have no idea whats in it, except flying mounts which may or may not work properly.
I have very little faith in the Dev team to deliver, and I may just wait about 6 months before I order it, so we can at least get all the content, since you know they will hold some of it back for their game updates like the halas fiasco last year.
They’ve given us a fair amount of information on what the expansion will contain released back on the 9th of August at Fanfaire.
From the page then it said
* Hundreds of new weapons, including Velium weapons
* 300+ quests
* 10 instances
* 1 massive contested dungeon
* 4 Heritage Quests including the Coldain Prayer Shawl
* 6 Raids
* 2 Overland Zones
More I cannot say though since I’m under NDA, but I don’t have a bad feeling about it 😉
The mumbling I have heard so far tells me I am not pre-ordering until the fix some very major issues in beta. And I don’t trust anything from Fan Faire as everyone has seen they don’t always deliver what they promised. This xpac is gonna be a make or break for a lot of peeps and right now its a break. Hopefully the fix it soon so people are actually excited about what they are seeing in beta.
I have a good feeling about Rift. I usually don’t have any sort of feeling about a new mmo, sure i get excited to check out something new, but Rift, i literally have an excellent gut feeling about it.
EQ2Wire ever considered branching out? Reason i bring this up is I’ve discovered other site’s which provide essentially the core content here however they talk about Rift, EVE, lotro and more, even MMO’s i never knew existed.
One can’t stay interested only in EQ2 forever, when that day comes then what? Sure I’m done with EQ2 but after spending 6 years with it, you still have some vested interest and this is the perfect site to tune into the latest and greatest happening in the world of Norrath 2.0. Would be nice to have some variety of games to read about though, such as these other sites. Heck i read about games i’m playing, games i used to play, and games i’ve never played, if you are into mmo’s it’s all interesting reading, familiar title or not.
You better really like PvP if you want to play Rift. The way its designed, the opposing factions can easily grief quest hubs even on PvE servers. It is really easy to get flagged for PvP combat in the game as well, its not a simple toggle like EQ2.
Amazon has it available to order, includes some cloak and painting. Yawn.
http://www.amazon.com/EverQuest-II-Destiny-Velious-Pc/dp/B003O6EG8E/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1295024420&sr=8-2
Re: Ondten
“It is really easy to get flagged for PvP combat in the game as well, its not a simple toggle like EQ2.”
That was a problem in one beta, a beta that wasn’t really scheduled but was more of a goodwill gesture to the community to let us play between Xmas and New Years. They are actively working on fixing this due to the hundreds of pve players who sent feedback about this. The changes they’ve made just based on player comments between beta 1 and 4 is astonishing. I have no doubt this pve flagging issue will be resolved on pve servers at least well before launch.
They are making daily changes in Beta. Things are constantly getting fixed and tested. Not sure why everyone has “a bad feeling”.
Naysaying is really starting to get old when you have nothing really to base it on.
That, and most people will be back from Rift within three months. Mark my words. Rift is the Vanguard of 2011.
I’ll get the EQ2 expansion and play it a couple of days, then I’ll be in the Rift headstart and probably only play it for a couple of weeks due to the novely. Then after that I’ll be swapping back and forth between the 2 games, just like I swap between EQ2, DDO, and EVE right now. I’ll just have added a 4th game to the mix. . though DDO will probably drop out then and I’ll still be “at 3.”
While on the phone with a friend i mentioned what ondten said (who has played all beta) all he did was laugh, all i want to know is it my kind of game or what, he replied “definitely”.
It has to be, i have a good gut feeling about this one.
He just emailed me this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WXKsWAIUm0&feature=related
That’s the way to go pkudude99, keep a variety. My only problem with doing the same is time.
Re:Steve
“Naysaying is really starting to get old when you have nothing really to base it on.”
We have the last 3-4 years to base it on. What used to be a phenomenally good game has been nickling and diming us…promises failing to deliver, less and less content yearly, obvious bugs not being fixed, things that just exasperate you when that smokey guy makes an annoucement.
So yah, there’s a lot to base this bad feeling on.
I read their statement and I was very amused as well by the timing of the date- being two days before Rift’s early release date of the 24th. First off, if they need more time to “polish” stuff up, that’s fine, but you can’t tell me the date had nothing to do with it. The laughable part is, that’s the last thing they should have done. If they want a good showing in the first month of release of the expansion, they needed to release it well before Rift’s early release. They cannot compete- period. They should be distancing themselves from this. SOE Moving the date closer is like walking toward a grenade that’s just been thrown. I have played in the Rift BETA, and I have been a loyal player of EQ2 since the opening day of the original release. I can honestly say that if people want to check out Rift who also enjoy playing EQ2, a very good majority of those people are highly likely to spend much more time logging into the Rift servers than the EQ2 servers, simply put. Their only chance to show good number in the first month was to get them into the content beforehand. This is a dumb move, I hope it was worth the extra polish. And in case naybody is wondering I plan on playing both… but I normally don’t login to EQ2 anymore except on raid nights because I get bored with the normal content. Sooner or later myself and others like me will move on to an evolved MMO…
“That, and most people will be back from Rift within three months. Mark my words. Rift is the Vanguard of 2011.”
Pretty bold statement since Vangaurd failed years before it was even released. Vangaurd’s only hype was Brad whom essentially was non existent the last couple years before it was released. Your words are marked.
I played wow at launch for a couple months, when i left i was marked saying “Wow is going to implode in another month and everyone will be back at whatever mmo they came from, they’ll be lucky to have enough subs to run one server.”
Talk about being wrong, my wife calls me on this one here and there.
I don’t consider Fan Faire info to be recent news about the expansion.
What kinds of raids?
What kinds of instances?
What kinds of overland zones?
What kinds of quests?
Can we see some concept art of these fabulous weapons and armor? Some recent in game pictures?
I was already disappointed to hear a few things about the DoV beta, from the small amount of news i’ve heard.
The track record of SOE: Rush xpack launch, delay key features, have over or underpowered itemization at launch with a nerf 2 weeks in, have xp exploits for the first 2 weeks before again nerfing them, Bugs with travel, bugs with items and procs, alot of bugs with raids.
That is usually the story for EQ2 expansions. 6 Raid zones? It will take them months to iron out the kinks.
If it is so great why aren’t they tooting their horn? why have they waited a month before release to issue the preorder…I remember in the old days I’d have 2-3 months of a preorder on my expansion and I would know what I was getting for the most part because for the months following fanfaire they’d release content and interviews to get the hype wagon going.
This year? It’s been awfully quiet.
Starseeker is right on the money here, I’m sure this must be on allot of people’s minds, “why so quiet?”, this is a new one for SOE.
I finally woke up after getting ripped off with the last two crapansions. I have the last one on the shelf at home and when i look at it, i can only think of what a waste of money, all because i continued to put my faith in EQ2 and company.
It’s very comforting to not have to even think about this one (at all), I’ve already put my money down on Rift CE’s anyway.
I have to say though, expecting people to bendover errr i mean preorder with no preorder info, kinda lets you know what SOE must think of it’s player base. With Rift coming i’m pretty sure they must know it’s all over.
It’s great to know that Scott’s vision of what EQ2 could have been has come to realization in a game called Rift.
I’d guess they took all the money earned from EQ2 Marketplace and put it towards advertising for DCUO. Seriously, somebody’s bringing up Fanfair??? That was how long ago? The only thing out there is the one fly-over video. Whoa Nelly, that didn’t get old! There is something seriously wrong with a company not advertising and attempting to generate as much interest as possible in their new product before it’s released, simply put. The fact that they have not done this gives the image that they (arrogantly) believe they have all of their fanbase locked in for the long-haul already and don’t need to put forth the effort on advertising (which is only natural for that business mentality to eventually spill into actual development decisions- let’s hope that doesn’t happen). SOE, specifically regarding EQ2/customer service, has not looked smart or cooperative in quite some time.
Firstly Starseeker, you complained that SOE gave us “no information”, now you are complaining that it was information given out months ago – you sound like you just enjoy complaining.
I think you are expecting here that everything has the WoW hype levels to it, the rest of the games industry doesn’t work that way, thats why DC Universe online just launched without endless hype posts about it. Planetside 2 is going into beta without people being fobbed off with the usual “its everything you want from an MMO” or “its everything wrong in your MMO fixed”, instead its “play the game and make your own mind up”, got to say I like that approach, although I’m allergic to hype so maybe its just my preference (Ironclad games are another mob good at that!).
And Blockhead, seriously, if you don’t like EQ2 then please find a site talking about a game you do like, if you feel the need for a site that “branches out” to cover other games then why not just look at site that already covers that other game?
Murfalad – I could have given you this same info about a Velious expansion 3 years ago. What SOE said at fan faire or what I could have guessed 3 years ago is just speculation or hope that it will be included.
What we want to know is what actually made it into this Velious expansion. SOE has not delivered properly on an expansion in years, which is precisely why only those who have their noses stuck somewhere undesirable continue to have blind faith that the promises at fan faire will be realized. Those of us who know SOE’s track record only want to hear the truth of what makes it in and what to expect. Things disclosed 6, 12, 24 months ago does not even matter in the least bit.
Hundreds of new weapons, including Velium weapons
* 300+ quests
* 10 instances
* 1 massive contested dungeon
* 4 Heritage Quests including the Coldain Prayer Shawl
* 6 Raids
* 2 Overland Zones
That was what was said at fan faire for EQ2 Velious. Compare that with what was included for EQ1 Velious. Does not even compare. Additionally, any person familiar with EQ1 Velious could have composed this exact same chart. Come on people.
Those features for DoV look cookie-cutter from TSO and SF. Same shit different expansion. I have a friend in Beta, and she summed it up as follows: “Unimpressive.” Sad. I love this game, but hate what they’re doing to it.
“thats why DC Universe online just launched without endless hype posts about it. Planetside 2 is going into beta without people being fobbed off with the usual “its everything you want from an MMO” or “its everything wrong in your MMO fixed”, instead its “play the game and make your own mind up”, got to say I like that approach…”
Uhhh – You do know that both DCUO and Planetside 2 are SoE games, right? It makes sense that they wouldn’t market them either. Which isn’t even entirely true anyways… DCUO had a fair amount of marketing behind it. But anyway, for Sony to just say, “Buy it… Hopefully you like it. If not, at least we got your box sale!” is just EXTREMELY poor business. How many people do you know buy something just because it’s new?
Bottom line is that the launch was delayed. I find it hard to believe that the extra 2 weeks are going to used for “polish” but rather, finishing. Even so, I don’t think anyone can or should complain about a company wanting to work on their product more, even if it IS a bad business move. We all know the expansion is going to be unfinished anyways two weeks later so whatever. It is what it is.
lotro get boring blockhead… people come here to read bout eq2, not rift. Im sure rift has some forums you can use.
Putting aside your jibes at people. There has been very little to any information about DoV. The only thing we have heard so far is whisperings about the beta of which very little good has been said. Right now it is probably the most borked of anything we have heard. DoV has a HUGE legacy to live up to. Because of this a lot is riding on it. SOE has been plagued with botched things lately and until we actually get some communication about what is coming the rumor and whisper mill is churning full force with very little good to say. Until the beta testers start saying good things about the next xpac, I see no reason at all to give SOE any type of preorder for something that ultimately may be a huge mess. I am hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.
Thank you Kruzzen that was the point I was trying to get across. Sorry some people misunderstood at as complaining. Expansion is nearly 70 bucks, I want to know what I’m paying for instead of some list from 6 months ago with no real data to back it up.
I think eq2 will get hit with the nostalgia bullet, people come to expect things from velious, things that won’t be there. This is a risky expansion, and the quietness just seems to simply state “we are not confident in our product, we aren’t going to say anything, and you will buy it due to it being “velious”, we’ll get your box sale..but we aren’t sure if you will like it or if it will be what you expect it to be”. If they start releasing stuff before the launch, it gives people time to make up their mind that it’s not the velious they liked, and then they won’t buy it on name alone.
If I had an expansion, that I was proud of and worked as long as these folks have worked supposedly on velious and knew it was a home run (which velious should be if done right), I’d be releasing something that the players want to hear, instead of letting all the NDA breakers start the rumor mill about the bad features, but I suppose that is why I am not a developer.
I have to say, playing the Rift betas has been really impressive. The devs really listen to player feedback and implement changes swiftly. The game feels to me like EQ2 back in the Hartsman days, and I don’t even have friends in Rift yet. It remains to be seen if the dev response stays good after release, but they can’t get much worse than EQ2, which takes over a year to fix any bugs or implement any class balance changes in most cases.
I haven’t played the Velious beta but if it’s at all a rehash of the last year of EQ2 or SF in general, EQ2 is really going to be hurt by it. A lot of people are holding out for it to make a final decision about whether to leave or not.
foozlesprite, that’s exactly why I’m getting so pumped about Rift, from the little I’ve researched, i’m getting a slight Hartsman feel as well, you put it best
“The game feels to me like EQ2 back in the Hartsman days”
That is “Music to my ears”.
Blockhead, I won’t say it’s perfect or exactly like old EQ2. But there’s the sense of wanting to explore everywhere, and sneaking through places you probably shouldn’t be in alone, etc. I dislike the fact that the players are divided into factions, but just like in EQ2 the lines of good and evil aren’t clearcut.
I love messing with the class system (in the betas I combined elementalist, stormcaller, and chloromancer to come up with something like a fury with a conjy pet). And if you’re bored of questing, Rifthopping can be fun as heck. I love running from Rift/invasion to Rift/invasion, joining other players to take part in something that feels like a raid or group but is spontaneous and doesn’t require talking to people you don’t know if you’re feeling introverted.
Plus it maintains a lot of the punny humor that EQ2 has. I particularly enjoyed getting the achievement ‘Death-Defying Acheesement’ for beating a knight’s record for eating poisoned cheese within a time limit. It’s fun as all heck 😀
Rift rift rift..anything Rift has over EQ2 can be patched on a hotfix
few things
1) The map goes translucent when you run! OOMMG SO OSSOM
2) You know those quests you have to leash something when its @20%? instead of finding the f*cking item in your bags, you click an icon on the quest helper in the upper right corner of your screen!!!! SUPER DYNAMIC MAYN
3) You can “customize” your character instead of having 4(with velious) predetermined AA trees you get to choose 4 out of 6! WOO, SUGOI NE!
4) Thats it! There is no number 4!
yah i agree nothing is said of vellious and i bet half of what comes out is broken seeing as they fired most their devs some time ago .
but i agree with the general sentiment . no info and pay us 70$ .. no thanks soe
People sure like to exaggerate.
Velious is $40 and SOE laid off 1 person working on eq2. 2 eq2 team members worked on other games at least part of this expansion cycle.
foozlesprite no worries i didn’t take what you said as “perfect or exactly like old EQ2.” Was only happy to see someone else feel this too, and that i wasn’t just imagining it.
First I’m trying to limit knowing to much about Rift for the extra awe factor going into this new world.
Of what i’ve watched and read though I’m getting a slight Hartsman feel as i said above. This to me means more about the fact you are in good hands. The guy has a gift as anyone whom played through the Hartsman years in EQ2 will know exactly what I’m talking about.
Remember back when the forums froth with players thinking the Dev’s for this and that. The cool additions and content. Thank you for listening to the players was in just about every thread. Those were Hartsman years.
Without getting into a long list of why’s i think i can sum it up with.
When you log in you know you’re going to have a good time. You can’t wait to log in next, you can’t wait to find out what’s going to happen next. This is what i took “The game feels to me like EQ2 back in the Hartsman days” to mean.
@Feldon
That one person was also the person who developed the best group and raid content in the recent years…
So, how is that exaggerating?
Yes I do see that the expansion is 39.99. In previous years I would usually buy the CE, so I forgot what the pricing was on the regular. My bad…still $40.00 or 70.00…I have no idea besides some references to how much content there is, who knows on the quality of said content, so I would still be paying for an unknown. If I knew more maybe I’d pre-order, but not knowing anything…probably not.
@Vortex on Jospeh’s comment “seeing as they fired most their devs some time ago”
1 out of a team of about 65 (EQ2 + music,sound and video according to the SF collectors manual, there are another 60-100 in customer service) in the past year, you make that equal to most? I remember Smokejumper talking about how 2 more people had been hired in other areas even.
Exagerating like that just invalidates any point you are trying to make.
And I thought you left EQ2? If so then why do you care?
@ Blockhead – pull the other one with “forums froth with players thinking the Dev’s for this and that”, I liked the RoK expansion and it was good, but there were still people moaning about it being too solo orientated, hard to solo, not enough group content etc.
To say it was some sort of golden age is just a pile of bull, there was a lot of complaints about KoS too, which were quite valid imo although later changes have fixed many of the short comings there.
He’s done good things with EQ2, but through EQ2’s life the forums and web have always been going on about its “shortcomings” and had people saying how some other game – WoW, WAR, AOC, AION, STO, RIFT is much better. The only game out there that had a golden age was WoW, every other game sat in its shadow, even there its not looking pretty.
I left the game, but that doesn’t mean it’s still a place I wish I could go back to.
Er, ^but that doesn’t mean it’s still a place I wouldn’t want to go back to.
Multitasking carries some margin of mistyping =p
I wish they would fix up the game.
And, yes, out of 65 people 1 person really can make a difference.
For example, if I was fired from my work today, despite their being 10 other people working at the store, our entire stockroom would be overflowing within two weeks.
Why? Because a lot of people don’t care, and a lot of people waste their time doing other things.
When someone who does their job well goes away…
It’s noticed.
well i don’t think its a exaggeration below is
link to the firings last year.
http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/07/16/soe-layoffs-detailed-eqii-and-vanguard-affected/
but yah 2 devs but devs have support teams and other people who do help them, so no im not exaggerating in my opinion but yeah know im not on the ground floor or know anything about what happens in their world . so its just form my limited experience being a gamer .
@Rick
I was talking specifically about this expansion which is the theme of this particular blog entry.
If you hate the game so much and want to constantly run around running it down, why do you still give SOE money and if you don’t why do you still come to blogs about the game and complain?
Scott Hartsman
Everquest II: Rise of Kunark (Video Game) (senior producer)
2006 EverQuest II: Echoes of Faydwer (Video Game) (senior producer)
2006 EverQuest II: The Fallen Dynasty (Video Game) (senior producer)
2006 EverQuest II: Kingdom of Sky (Video Game) (senior producer)
2005 EverQuest II: Desert of Flames (Video Game) (senior producer)
2005 EverQuest II: The Splitpaw Saga (Video Game) (senior producer)
2004 EverQuest II (Video Game) (senior producer)
Link:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2290141/
I “think” Scott came in just after launch (probably to save the game). When RoK was released it was obvious Scott was no longer in control as SOE demanded the game be something else. The guy has so much class that he stayed till RoK was launched then left SOE immediately after.
Since his departure:
The next two expansions without Scott were terrible, and the 3rd one Velious is taking the same road as the previous two. Essentially you are playing a Scott Hatsmann game or whats left of it as SOE keeps bringing in Yes men and butchering it.
Were they golden years? The answer is an unequivocal yes, they were the golden years without a doubt, the game was a blast. Forums used to have dozens of threads of praise running all at once after any release. LU13 exception, however that turned out over time, was the start of the golden years as Scott started making sense of the game after the shambled state the game was in at launch.
Since Scott left the forums are usually full of people complaining as SOE continues to make horrible decisions after decisions.
Hartsman years:
EQ2 love > displeased
Yes man years:
EQ2 love < displeased
Rift with Scott Hartsman, oh-yaaaa, gonna be some good times a coming. Not too late to get on board for the ride of your life.
Having started playing mid-Kunark I really wonder about those “golden years” while leveling through the content:
– For classic I can totally see that, lots of stuff to do, nice zones and meaningful progression in endgame
– DoF: mixed – awesome lore, decent solo stuff (bit on the grindy side with Courts faction), great low/mid raids (except top end with eyes farming), but a bit lacking in dungeons (difficulty / variety). Keep me busy for half a year? Maybe…
– KoS: hmm – virtually no solo content, very small landmass, decent dungeons, raids and char progression (AA introduced). Keep me busy for half a year? On Again maybe, but what to do while finding a group…
– EoF: again hmmm – nice zones, but rather little additions to endgame stuff dungeon-wise. EH as incredible timesink for raiding. Keep me busy? Leveling a new char up yes, endgame-wise – not really…
– RoK: Solo-fest, can’t really see the dungeons keeping me busy for the whole duration, again mixed about raid content.
– TSO: My first “real” expansion, loved it, had a blast, tons of dungeons with at least some challenge till the end (Guk, PoF) and difficult raids to keep me busy at endgame across several chars
– SF: Annoying to level, but decent afterwards, dungeons a bit too much on the easy side as soon as you got gear, nice raids, no updates to speak of during the year.
So – what did I miss from the “golden” years?
Honestly it’s a “you had to be there” timing thing. Play Rift and you’ll understand. Unfortunately they have butchered the game too much to ever again experience what the Golden Years were all about. Sorry for anyone who missed them, but you’ll have Rift.
Yeah – it’s almost impossible to get the right feeling from old content now because it has been changed by current staff so much. It was also teeming with people LFG so the content you cant seem to do now for lack of groups was easily accessible at the time. Couldn’t agree with you more Blockhead… though I don’t see RIFT being world shattering, I do see it being a breathe of fresh air compared to the games currently on the market.
For me the thing that drove me away from eq2, was not the game, although I feel the game is in a poor state and has been lack luster since RoK, it is and was how the subscriber player base is treated.
I am concerned about this expansion, and future ones. Concerned that the dev team is focusing on the wrong things for the game and the right things for a cash grab.
The Golden Age of EQ2 was not in any one expansion, it was at the beginning when the Devs still communicated to us about things they were excited about, the Dev Q&As, the answers, the previews the information that they were not afraid to show us. When things were fresh and new, when ideas were flowing, and things weren’t kept in the dark, or hidden from the playerbase until it was “to bad so sad” moment. Thats my take on it.
I hate to keep harping on rift in these forums, since this is an eq2 news site, but I will say that even though I’m 1 of 75k fans of Rift, I feel like my input is appreciated, and as a customer I am appreciated, even if it’s not really true, I get that feeling. Even if Rift tanks, that is what will keep me there.
That is what could have kept EQ2 alive for some, all anyone needed is some communication, recognition, answers, and even if they weren’t going to do what we asked, just saying why and not being silent, or beating around the bush would have went a long ways.
Well said Starseeker. This is exactly what i mean by the golden era as well. It wasn’t this expansion or that expansion is was the general good feeling you had playing the game as it got better and better, and you weren’t alone, good will amongst the players and devs as our input was heard and acted upon.
Now it’s all about SC. It’s not the game that drove us away it’s the way we are being treated.
I feel that people are also misinterpreting by excitement about Rift, as Jay said to me “though I don’t see RIFT being world shattering” i say good, thats not what I’m expecting.
I’m expecting it to be simply the way it was during the Golden Era of eq2 or the Hartsman years. From the little i gathered about Rift, it certainly seems to be shaping up that way.