EverQuest II: Age of Discovery — 2 Months To Go?
NOTE: This article contains no new information since August’s SOE Fan Faire 2011 event, but since these questions have been coming up more and more frequently, I thought I’d do a recap.
EverQuest II: Age of Discovery
With its promise of new features rather than new content, EverQuest II’s eighth expansion has the makings of an atypical release. EverQuest II: Age of Discovery is touted to have:
- Beastlords — The most frequently requested feature of EQ1 arrives with the Beastlord class. The 25th class will wear Brawler equipment but otherwise have an archetype of Scout. Will have a separate AA tree for their pet.
- Mercenaries — NPCs which can be hired to assist in questing, groups, and raids
- Tradeskill Apprentices — Little is known about these, but they use a new crafting table type and offer unique new recipes.
- Design Your Own Dungeon — Based on an updated version of the housing system, players can build dungeons using existing Zone styles, placing Items and Mobs picked up from around Norrath. They can then publish their Dungeon for others to play *using avatar NPCs* (you may not use your own character to run a DYOD). Rewards include gear for your main character, or items which can be used to build your own Design Your Own Dungeons.
- Item Reforging — Reshuffle some (but not all) of the stats on your items. You’ll also gain an in-game Particle Effect editor.
EverQuest II: Age of Discovery Will Not Have
- Overland Zones/Dungeons/Raids — Age of Discovery is not a new area of the game, so will not contain any new overland zones or instances.
- Level Cap Raise — We’ve heard from more than one developer that raising the level cap of EQ2 will require substantial reworking of game mechanics and thus is not part of the short-term plans for the game.
Wait a minute! What about “Velious Part 2″? When do we get the rest of Velious?
It turns out that EverQuest II: Age of Discovery will be a totally optional features expansion.
Whether you buy Age of Discovery or not, we have been promised new Velious content including Overland Zones, Group Instances, and Raids well into 2013.
Game Update 62, which is free to all players and coincides with the November 2011 release of Age of Discovery, will give all players the revamped City of Freeport which combines the current North, South, East, and West Freeport, has a new look, will be flyable, and will have all new quests from level 1-30, as well as followup quests throughout levels 30-90.
Game Update 65 64, expected next summer, specificallyAugust 2012, will do the same for the City of Qeynos.
Game Update 63 (February April 2012) and Game Update 64 (May 2012) will continue the Velious storyline, introducing new Overland Zones, Dungeons, and likely Raids. We’ve been told to expect dragons, lots of dragons.
When does EQ2: Age of Discovery get released?
With three of EverQuest II’s seven expansions falling on the third or fourth Tuesday of November, we are speculating that, barring any rescheduling, Age of Discovery will arrive on either Tuesday, November 15th, 2011, or Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011. These dates peg us at either 7 1/2 or 8 1/2 weeks away from the new release.
How much will EQ2: Age of Discovery cost?
We honestly don’t know. Destiny of Velious was $40 with a $70 digital collector’s edition, but we can’t make ANY assumptions at this point.
When do we Beta Test?
In the private testing forum (visible only if you have a character on Test and have been flagged correctly on the forums to see it), SmokeJumper strongly suggested that there is displeasure with how the current Test and Beta Test processes are conducted and that we might see some kind of rethinking of this arrangement in the future, including a “full time Beta test server“.
I feel that much of the blame for disinterest in Testing falls squarely on the shoulders of the EQ2 mechanics team for minimal communication during the Velious Beta and almost complete abandonment of the Test forum during the first 7 weeks of the Reitemization of Game Update 61.
At this point, we don’t know if there even WILL be a private (Non Disclosure Agreement) Age of Discovery Beta, or if these features will simply go to Test or a revamped public Beta server for a few weeks before going Live.
Your Thoughts
- Will you buy the Age of Discovery expansion?
- Is it too much to ask to pay for 2 expansions in 1 year, even if the second one is largely optional?
- Do you consider Age of Discovery a truly optional expansion considering it will increase the Alternate Advancement pool?
- What Age of Discovery feature are you most looking forward to?
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Comments (54)
SteveT
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90% of features don’t interest me in the new expansion. I will however buy it because of the aa cap raise, nothing else. Even BL isn’t that exciting to me as I already have so many level 90’s it’d get to 90 then be unused.
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Shepherd
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Don’t really care about beastlords either.. If there’s a AA-cap increase you are pretty much forced to buy the expansion though, at least if you expect to be able to play endgame content.
I expect mercenaries to either be a buggy feature that no one really have the energy to use or if they actually get it to work I think it will completely ruin the game.. At least as far as pick up groups/raids are concerned.
“Item Reforging — Reshuffle some (but not all) of the stats on your items. You’ll also gain an in-game Particle Effect editor.”
Finally, now there’s no need at all for SoE to even design weapons.. Looks like they ran out of weapon ideas and just decided to give up. At least if I’m not misunderstanding 🙂
“Design Your Own Dungeon”
SoE is really sick of designing game content it looks like.
Might be fun for a little while but it will soon be a unused feature I think, kinda like the arenas. They may add OP’d items to get people to use this feature but will end up nerfing them as soon as people give up and start using it.
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Anaogi
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IF, and ONLY IF, word from testing is that this isn’t another massive Round-Robin Charlie Foxtrot, I will get this expansion, if only because a DIY play experience may make up for SOE idiocy. (Yes, I know the fatal flaw in that hope. Work with me here.)
If not, well, who can say.
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PatrickB
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This “expansion” is very much still on the fence for me for several reasons.
The AA cap raise is a must for anyone who wants to continue raiding (as I do) but there hasn’t been word, as far as I’ve seen, on a new tree at all so where are these points going? Are we just going to be able to fill more into existing trees?
It also depends on the price, a full priced expansion is questionable for me to buy, but less price might make it more viable. I know several people who are buying it at any price for the BL, but I’m not an EQ1 vet so it isn’t as exciting for me.
I guess the most exciting thing for me is going to be the reforging depending on how it’s done. I like the idea of changing up stats to get what I want on items.
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karl
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I do consider AOD an expansion
but I dont recall any expansions that ever had no new adventure content
cant do much worse than The Shadow Odyssey which I believe was EQ2s worst expansion
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bhagpuss
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I’m looking forward to AoD more than any expansion since EoF. As a non-raider and non-heroic-grouper, most recent expansions have done nothing for me. I didn’t even bother to buy DoV until the recent double SC weekend, despite the original Velious having been my favorite expansion in any game ever.
AoD contains four major features that, as a player in a small guild of people who potter about mostly below max level, I expect to get a lot of use out of. Mercenaries in EQ1 were simply the best addition to any MMO I have ever seen. They transformed gameplay in EQ for many players, even those who, like me, had literally thousands of hours logged over most of a decade. I was able to see many zones I had never even visited before and I did more grouping with other players after mercs appeared than I’d done for years without them. Mercs are all win, all the time, whether you like to solo, duo or group.
My highest level character in EQ is a beastlord, so obviously I’m very much looking forward to the new class. It’s more than that, though. Adding a new class gives me a sound reason to level up another character, and the presence of mercenaries and the recent item revamp should make that a very different experience to the last dozen times I did it.
As a keen tradeskiller the Tradeskill apprentices looks like a feature I’ll get plenty of use out of, although it’s really hard to be sure with so little detail.
And finally, I am really pleased to see the dungeon-maker concept come to EQ2. I anticipate using that a lot, both as a designer and a dungeon-runner.
Overall, this looks like far and away the best expansion for years.
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Steve
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Not really seeing a reason to resub at this time.
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Cristamir
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I’ll likely buy it for the AAs and the trade skill features. I am rather curious to see how the mercs work out.
I couldn’t care less about beastlords. I hated what they did with the class in EQ1 and while this is a different game, just the thought of them leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
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Kevin
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It’s a complete waste of development resources.
It seems we’ve fallen into the “features, features, features” development cycle. Instead of strengthening the core of the game, they’re piling on layers and layers of features they can’t possibly support with the team they currently have.
Think about it this way… how many AA trees could they have improved and made worthwhile, instead of focusing on Beastlords? How many client improvement could they have made instead of focusing on DYOD? Maybe they could have had Freeport AND Qeynos done this year instead of focusing on Item Reforged, Mercenaries, and Tradeskill Apprentices?
It just seems like this team has no idea how to manage it’s limited resources and they have absolutely no interest in creating a polished and competitive product.
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Aethn
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2 Months and still no Beta, this gives me no confidence to buy
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Dirty_Monkey
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I always like expansion and get excited about them. I am, however, upset there isn’t a level increase. I would have preferred them to scale teh old zones to 100 and build new content. I understand the “level through gear concept”, but it isn’t easily measurable.
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G510
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Epic Fail… I miss the old devs. This game is failing. Seems like they are coming out with a game update calling it a expansion and chargin for it. Sigh. Everquest II was a great game back in the day sad to see it die like this. Who wants to continue in a game that all they do is screw around with gear stats all the time, break things, and still charge for all the screw ups? Oh well. We can only hope for whats “Next”.
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Feldon
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If they give us 50 more AA points to spend on existing trees, I know a few classes that can skip the whole thing. I mean really does a Monk or Ranger benefit from any of the other AAs? We’ve got everything we need at 276 AAs.
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Necromancer
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You’re really going to try and convince me that after SOE completely botched GU61, and released it with a million bugs, that they can create and perfect an entire expansion pack in 9 months?
lol.
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Dyadem
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/shrugs… I’m not excited or anything, but lets hope they can change that.
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Gore
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The 25th class will wear Brawler equipment but otherwise have an archetype of Scout
Does this means that if you get a fighter drop in the x4 then it will list beastlord as an option? or will it be on the scout loot table?
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Lizzieanna
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I will get the expansion. I know GU61 was a mess. Hopefully, SoE learned from this and doesn’t repeat (or make too many additional) the errors. This is my favorite game and I’ve invested a lot of time and RL/game money into it. I am in no hurry for the expansion and would much rather they test it extra long than letting it go live with a lot of bugs.
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James
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Outside of new AA’s, which is possible, I don’t see any reason to buy this.
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Charn
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Is this an expansion? Let’s consult with Merriam-Webster, shall we?
As a reminder:
How is ANYthing being expanded upon in this, so called, “expansion?” Even the Adventure Packs were more of an expansion than this “expansion”, adding new real estate to the game by way of overland zones or dungeons. The ONLY thing “expanding” with AoD will be our AAs. Everything else is something you’d find in regular updates and download-able content. Even at Fan Faire the whole thing just stunk to high-heaven for me. I just imagined the whole conversation felt like it went something like this . . .
“Hey Dave (Georgeson), there’s just no way, with what we’ve done so far in DoV, that we’re going to be ready for an expansion in a year, what do we do, Dave?”
“So we won’t put one out next year.”
“But Dave, we’ve put one out every year in EQ1 AND EQ2, our customers have come to expect it. We’ve kind of backed ourselves in a corner here and we may lose subscribers.”
“Hmm . . . well let’s just slap together some AAs, throw in beastlords after denying it from them for so long, make THEM all do our work for us by making them design dungeons and calling it a “feature”, slap on the word expansion: DONE! Mai Tais and mojitos for everyone!”
. . . Okay, so that may be a BIT sarcastic, but you get the gist of my frustration. For an “expansion” entitled ‘Age of Discovery’ the only thing I’ve discovered is that with this economy we live in today, my dollar doesn’t seem to go as far as it once did. It’s just a shame that particular reality has to spill over into my fantasy world. I guess there’s some things you just can’t escape from, even for a little while.
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Armathius
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I don’t know if I will be getting this by just looking at what they are “selling”… I mean we used to get more in the old game updates then they want us to pay for this expansion. I agree about missing the old devs.
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freykin
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I will be getting it. As a casual on and off player who mainly solos and duos, everything being added sounds totally awesome to me. If the Build Your Own Dungeon ends up feeling similar to how the equivalent in City of Heroes works, it’s going to be a great addition to the game. Mercenaries make a whole lot of sense, I think, as they’ll open up content for those who play a lot in smaller groups. Tradeskill apprentices sound neat as well. Beastlord is the only one I’m iffy on, but I tend to like what SOE puts out in general, so I’m definitely going to make one and see how it goes.
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Kymyn
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All I can say is this “expansion” is setting yet another dangerous precedent. Much like station cash and all this nonsensical charley foxtrot of the combat system, stats, reitemization, etc. Getting really sick of this.
No interest at all in something optional – of course, with little or no concrete information that may all change.
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Xalmat
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I’m going to buck the trend:
There’s nothing wrong with an expansion that adds no new zones, as long as the *features* that are added are worth the cost of purchasing the expansion.
Adding an entire new class (one that’s highly requested I might add), as well as highly requested features (Mercenaries, Design Your Own Dungeon), required features for end game players (new AAs and/or AA limits) and some useful features (Tradeskill Apprentices, Item Reforging). Those are all reasons to buy the expansion.
The big mystery is going to be Age of Discovery’s price. As I see it, an ideal pricing structure will be:
* $40 buys you Age of Discovery + Destiny of Velious + everything prior
* $20 buys you Destiny of Velious + everything prior
* $20 buys you the Age of Discovery alone, does not include previous expansions.
I’ve certainly bought EQ1 expansions that do less and cost about as much (Legacy of Ykesha anyone?). You buy them for the game features alone; the zones are just an added bonus.
Lemee ask the perpetual alt rollers a question, those people that never make it to end-game and are perpetually a low level and bought Destiny of Velious: Was Destiny of Velious a value to you? The AAs are level 85+, the zones are level 85+, the new tradeskill recipes are all level 85+, flying mounts are level 85+, all of the new major quests are level 85+, so if you aren’t level 85 you have no reason to even buy Destiny of Velious. If none of your characters are level 85, why did you buy Destiny of Velious?
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Kruzzen
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I do not have the sour thoughts about an expansion without new zones. We have been getting more new zones on a regular basis, so I don’t care if the expansion has them or not. No new level increase. I prefer this.
All the level increases have done is:
* Out date content
* Grey out more and more zones
* Increase the cost of masters because it is a new tier
* Make another rat race to sprint to the new level cap
I am fine without all that garbage. They are EXPANDING the features of the game whether or not they fit what everyone wants or not is a different story. I don’t like the idea of mercenaries, but I can take it or leave it. I agree that the loot reforging is just a cop out because SOE cannot balance gear so they are giving up to let the players do it for them. Fine, at least now we can get the gear to match our personal play style. DYOD, Meh, I will wait to see if they screw it up. Price, I am at wait and see. as someone with a slew of 90/300 toons, I could use something to level up, but I am sick and tired of buying masters. I think the ideas they are testing have some merit and would hate to shoot it down before it has a chance to work or not work. I am not confident that they won’t screw it up. The item revamp was a joke and right now they need something to be a success. I hope it is the next xpac. I reserve judgement on it until I can see more.
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Shepherd
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I assumed that we were getting new AA’s, just increasing the cap and letting us spend them as we want in our old tree will just make speccing your character a thing of the past, you will be able to get just about everything.. Kinda ruins the point of AA’s for me.
I actually like the thought of revamping all old items and attaching them to a script, it may not work immidiatelly and it should have been tested more but honestly.. With game mechanic changes and changes to population in lower tier zones it was a must and should have been done many expansions ago.
I just hope they actually get it to work well, aaany day now.
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Aethn
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No Level increase has zero to do with desire, it is a technical issue that was already stated at both FanFaire and on the boards. They can not raise the level cap at this time, because it is not possible under the current software they have and not break the game.
If this was not the case I assure you the game would be lvl 100.
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Flirpy Irondoe
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I have to agree.
This seems like such a random expansion. Did anyone ever ask for a Dungeon Builder in EQ2? Did anyone ever ask for a Particle Effect editor? They’re certainly not vocal on the official forums.
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Isest
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This looks more like an adventure pack than a full out expansion. Honestly they already given us most of the expansion this far. The only way I would buy it is for the AA cap that I keep hearing about. However I cant find any info about additional AA’s. Will there be a new line, or will we just be able to put the additional aa’s in the trees we hae already.
I have to say they are fixing to make a huge mistake, especially with the competition releasing swtor in december.
This looks to much fluff and not enough substance.
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Feldon
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They have announced no details, from the number of points, to any raised caps on existing trees, to whether we’ll get more abilities or not. I know my Monk and Ranger wouldn’t benefit from a raised cap of 350 and ability to spend more points on different trees.
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Kwill
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Since I am also a casual player, I agree with those that think the mercs will be a good feature. There’s a lot of content I would like to try, but can’t, but with one other player, it would certainly be do-able.
So I am looking forward to that.
Design your own dungeon could really work: there are many clever players out there that might design some really interesting stuff.
Fixing the stats on items might also be a clever idea.
I too agree that designing an expansion for the casual player is a good thing. I agree with Kruzen that raising the level cap just makes for more of a rat race, and we don’t need any more difficult content that only bored 90/300 players can do, or more faction grinding.
Beastlords can be a very fun class for those that like pet classes, but want to get in there and do some dps themselves. The team has a lot of experience with the class in their own stable from EQ1 and have the example from WoW to consider, as well, so it might be a great class addition. When I played one in EQ1, they didn’t fit the “core class” model for raiders, so were kind of second class citizens, but I did play one in WoW and it was a hellva lot of fun, actually. Again, however, they weren’t considered a very desireable endgame class (I never got there, so can’t say for sure on that) but for soloing and messing around in groups, they were fun. I will certainly make one and give it a try.
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Zapphod
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I am not opposed to the idea of an upgrade with no new zones after all they did that with the Lost Dungeons of Norrath release in EQ1 and it was very successful however I would stop short of calling it an expansion and there is no way in hell I would pay an expansion price to get it.
To my mind this is an adventure pack without the adventure which I guess just makes it a pack so maybe $10-15.
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Necromancer
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Lost Dungeons of Norrath introduced something that had never been seen in MMO’s up until that point – instances. It introduced the very first concept of instances with 5 different zones, of which had 10 variations of it. So they essentially had 50 new zones in it, and that’s not including the 5 different raid zones that went along with the LDON zones.
You sir, need a refreshment on your EQ history.
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Flirpy Irondoe
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If they could only give an official work on whether or not it will include previous expansions. It’s very annoying for those of us now who came back without DoV, and don’t want to find themselves buying two expansions in a two month interval.
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Breanna
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I personally wont buy it if no new content and may very well give up on eq2 since they dont plan much for the game as far as content till may of next year, thats pretty crap imo…. I just hope starwars is good enough to keep my interest. Cuz tbh they are killing eq2 slow but sure… and seem to want it to fold. With not bothering to give us more to keep our interest.. oo look freeport is sooo cool looking OOO WAIT I dont have even have a freeport toon 🙁 why do I care? lol Gratz soe!
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skipppydippy
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Today we’ve seen the released date annonced of the new star wars MMO all that this current dev team can come up with to at least try and combat that juggernaut of a game is a bunch of half baked and undercooked idea’s and are calling it an “expansion”.
Seriously if this is the best they can do then the game is in real trouble yet the sad thing is we know that the devs can come up with half decent content perhaps not the current set so much but certainly in the past,this seems to me like a cash grab,nothing more nothing less.
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Murfalad
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I guess I’ll buy it simply because its an expansion, the design your own dungeon is intriguing, the reforging and AA stat increase is probably going to be needed.
But on the AA increase they really need to make it so that we are not just adding more and more abilities, having super AA’s that take 5 AA points might be the way to go, ideally that also take away existing abilities and give us new ones that are even more desirable.
Personally my favourate expansion so far though has been TSO, that’s the one that gave EQ2 interesting dungoens (not endless tank+spank) and good (if heading towards the caps due to short sighted gear mechanics) gear progression.
This one seems a bit of a unknown, mercenaries sound a dangerous addition, if done wrongly then they can ruin the game, the AA’s if done badly will just add even more complexity to the game without actually adding any real depth. The particle effects editor might be just adding more code that relies on a graphics engine that has to update to shader 3.0 (when ATI and Nvidea drop support for 1.0).
Until I’ve seen what they actually do launch though I’m not really sure what we’ll get, done well this could be one of the best expansions going for gameplay, really no idea yet though.
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Liftik
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I honestly thought GU62 (Age of Discovery) was going to be a FREE expansion, when did it turn into “will you BUY this new expansion”?? /sigh
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Isest
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Well that is the entire problem with this, they call it an expansion, but it looks smaller than an andventure pack, something I thought we learned was a very bad thing from the past.
Honestly it should be free, nothing but fluff.
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Rocky
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I think this expansion will bomb, because it’s being release along the same time as the old republic. So any one that wants new content may jump for a month, if that happens… it doesn’t bode well for soe. I really like eq2, but doing the same stuff over and over gets boring.
Without any new information release recently, im worried that some features may get cut, and the expansion may get pushed into next year.
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Feldon
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RIFT coincided with Destiny of Velious. It may have taken an initial bite out of sales, but most people came back to EQ2. This is not to say the Velious launch wasn’t the worst expansion launch I’ve ever seen as far as information and exposure. I’ve never seen a company work so hard to keep a product launch such a secret. There weren’t ANY zone overviews or previews. There were hardly any developer interviews. Destiny of Velious was the secret expansion. Shhh!
Game Update 62 will be free. That’s the Freeport revamp. Since when has an expansion ever been free?
Not to defend SOE, but I’m just curious the folks saying that Age of Discovery has absolutely nothing for players… I guess nobody wants to run the revamped Freeport with entirely new questlines from level 1-30ish? Nobody wants to play a Beastlord (as unbalanced and unfinished as they will undoubtedly be)?
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skipppydippy
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Feldon you can’t compare RIFT with the new star wars game like it or not that game is going to be huge and will effect ALL games.
This isnt an expansion to me at least,big class? whoopdedo do we really need another one?(i recal when the fae came along and neriak they where free i recall) revamped Freeport? big whoop again that should be free simple as that.
This “expansion” offers very little for most players other than the extra AA (the dungeon designer,will i’m sure by like the battlefields a lot of dev time only to sit pretty much unused after a couple of months)
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Shepherd
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Revamped FP and eventually new zones will be free as I understand it. What you pay for is fluff (some new features that isn’t really a must for raiding/grouping) and raising the AA-cap by 50.
If it’s new AA’s that’s fine with me if it’s old AA-trees then just give up on the whole “chose your advancements” idea and just give everyone all skills, let them chose a heroic endline maybe but other than that everyone will have almost every skill that’s being offered.
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Flirpy Irondoe
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The Mercenaries will be huge though.
If you start a group with just two people and two mercs you can already do a dungeon.
And I hate to think about it, as I love to do PUGs… but with half people and half merc, it will probably be a better experience. Two or three people can coordinate far better than six. At least *for PUGs*.
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Kevin
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“Not to defend SOE, but I’m just curious the folks saying that Age of Discovery has absolutely nothing for players… I guess nobody wants to run the revamped Freeport with entirely new questlines from level 1-30ish? Nobody wants to play a Beastlord (as unbalanced and unfinished as they will undoubtedly be)?”
Not to nit-pick, but Freeport revamp is free. As for the other items, the only thing that I see that supports the overall health of the game would be Mercenaries. The rest (Beastlords, Reforging, Tradeskill Apprentices, DYOD) aren’t things that I would consider to be a “priority” for improving the game in general.
They would have been better served investing their resources in the Qeynos revamp and tie it with the release with Freeport revamp. Add to that an emphasis on engine/client/balence fixes and improvement, with the pending release of the Dungeon Finder, would have made a great opportunity for a coordinated marketing blitz.
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Liftik
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“Game Update 62 will be free. That’s the Freeport revamp. Since when has an expansion ever been free?”
I understand that expansions are never free Feldon, I just don’t see this as an “Expansion”. AoD doesn’t really expand anything, it’s just a features update. hehe even the name: “Age of Discovery” is funny, what we’re discovering is SoE is tired of making content and leaving it to the players.
As a casual player, semi-raider, I’m about 2 clicks behind the mainstream. But looking at this “expansion” I don’t see much in it to make it worth buying. Build your own Dungeon? Eh, you can’t even take your real characters through them. From what I’ve heard, you take pre-made avatars or something through and get rewards at the end that somehow translate into stuff your ‘real’ toons can use. Not my bag. Item Reforging? Again, SoE just either getting lazy or giving up and letting the players do their work, but of course they’ll be sure to nerf anything really fun or interesting. Other than the Mercenaries, and possible AA increase (I say possible, because I need to see how they’re going to do it, new trees? maybe, just upping the limit? nah) I don’t see much reason to buy this.
So to answer the questions posed:
•Will you buy the Age of Discovery expansion?
Will have to wait and see, at it’s current inception: No.
•Is it too much to ask to pay for 2 expansions in 1 year, even if the second one is largely optional?
Not too much to ask, but I don’t consider this a ‘true’ expansion.
•Do you consider Age of Discovery a truly optional expansion considering it will increase the Alternate Advancement pool?
Yes.
•What Age of Discovery feature are you most looking forward to?
If I had to pick one, probably mercs.
I do have a question about the mercenaries though, if I don’t buy the expansion and group with someone who has, and we group, and he brings a mercenary, will I even see it? Or won’t we be able to group with people who have mercenaries unless we pluck down the $$ for the expansion?
So to answe
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boho
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As a peraon with Velious, I won’t pay more than $20 for this.
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Striinger
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Just because something YOU think should be expanded doesn’t mean there is no expansion. My guess is that “FEATURE PURCHASE” aligned better with the f2p model eq2 us working in to the live servers. a lot of other bits will also work better there, too.
At the end of it all, really, who cares!? It’s a game where the toys are pixels. I’ll get the expac until my fun is gone then leave the game with the kids. It’s fun at the moment to see ranting chicken Littles screeching how feature X or Y will also”destroy” the world…WoW! I’m amazed at the adaptability.
Mercs didn’t kill guild wars or EQ. The only thing that will make them suck is if they listen to the whiner feedback. If you can’t get a group when people are on you are either a well known jerk, loot whore or gimp. A merc may be expanded “that guy’s” only shot at a group.
Expacs, free GUs and new stuff…bring it on!
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Xalmat
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Hmm, it makes me wonder if Velious will become free under the F2P model that EQ2X currently operates under.
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Vinsinar
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Maybe expansion pack is not the correct term Feature pack seems more appropiate.
I will buy it regardless because of the Beastlord and Merc’s. I can see why some people may not but all end game players probably will have to just for the AA increase.
I dont understand all this negativity. I mean if it’s not fun for you move on find that perfect game. Spend your time doing something helpful or productive.
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Sharann
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I see many people complaining about the expansion without really mentioning what they would like to see instead.
For sure this is not an expansion geared towards raiding and I thank SOE for that! There are players out there who would like to see something else for once and this expansion will just do the trick. Mercenaries seems like an awesome feature, dungeon builders will appeal to creative players and tradeskill apprentice will allow to craft high-quality items without having to raid. Awesome!
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Aelore
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I will still buy AoC barring it’s an all in one xpac.
I am disappointed that the dungeons you create are not playable by your avatar and thus are not really “adding” to the game world. I think this is an important step in MMOs and thought very highly of SoE for implementing it. I hope they plan to eventually have PC’s use the DYOD.
With this in mind I’m not even sure they should be charging for a full xpac.
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camelotcrusade
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I’m definitely looking forward to the expansion, though I’m worried about it happening (or at least happening well) given the cone of silence thus far – and we’re not that far away!
Anyway, I’ve been both a casual and a committed player over the years, and in my current casual phase this is just what I need to while away the hours when I’m not playing something else. As I like to duo the most, mercenaries sound like a great way to extend my reach.
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Squee
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EQ2s strengths are well thought out PVE for end game raiders, and exploration for sandbox players. It seems that over time SOE has been destroying the former and strengthening the latter. The dumbing down of stats on equipment around SF was as stupid a move IMO as the CU and NGE that the same developer did in SWG. Sony thinks that streamlining a system is the way to keep players interested.
I have hope for EQ2 because I’ve seen how many incarnations it has taken since launch. So EQ2 can change… but it needs BIG changes. First thing they need to do is backtrack to the old stat system, which will allow for greater diversity within each class. Who cares if raiders can’t figure out who should get what- half the fun of playing a troub used to be convincing the loot council about how that int cloth item was actually perfect for a troub.
Secondly, they’ll need rescale the whole damage system. It is already ridiculous thinking in terms of 100K DPS/Sec… What… are we gonna start having mobs with Trillions of HPs? I am personally satisfied if on one tier my character is doing 9Kdps, the next tier I’m doing 10Kdps. It’s all relative anyway- it’s new strategies and enemy content that should be challenging players each tier… not new grandeous numbers.
As far as sandbox content, I think the DYOD will be sweet for sandbox RPers and if executed could be genious for social players. New AA should add to diversification in playstyle, not just different ways to get higher numbers. BM- sounds good, just wary of being one in a million b/c everyone will be on the one new class.
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kronish
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I thought that because of the breach we were not going to pay for any expansions until 2013
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