SOE Trademarks The Altar of Malice and the Darkened Sea
According to a player who goes by Liched on the EQ2 Forums, SOE just registered two trademarks on July 2nd. One, The Altar of Malace, would seem to feed into an existing storyline in EverQuest related to Neriak. The other trademark — The Darkened Sea — may be the name of the upcoming EverQuest II expansion, a whole other game, or just a red herring which doesn’t amount to a released product any time soon.
The next EverQuest II expansion, expected to be released this November, will raise the level cap to 100 (as per the EQ2 Insider webcast) and will have a strong dinosaur theme (as per last year’s EQ2 Art panel). The upcoming expansion is expected to add new overland areas built with the new terrain tool, as well as adding new dungeons , and raids.
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Comments (14)
Kinya
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More info you can find here: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/everquest-h1z1-dev-trademarks-the-darkened-sea-and/1100-6420943/
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Feldon
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The linked article did not provide any actual information. 😉
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Loch
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Yeah, in fact, they seemed more confused than anything else.
“EverQuest and H1Z1 developer Sony Online Entertainment may be working on a pair of new role-playing games, if new trademark applications are any indication.”
Or maybe they’re expansions! Or new video game systems! Or new fragrance lines for men!
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Chuina
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Interesting. I really need to catch up with the story in EQ2 before this drops.
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Taka
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Malice got an altar now? He did convert to more Godly ways, didn’t know EQ was on point with that. hahah. Shout out, Va beach.
…He’s No Malice now but you get the reference. Or not.
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Cyliena
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I’m standing by my prediction of it being an Ocean of Tears themed expansion. Or they can go crazy-later for EQ1 lore and bust out The Buried Sea.
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asepkx
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what is the ‘new terrain tool’ all about?
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Feldon
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Jump to 36:35.
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Loch
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I know it’s a lot for the small team that’s left, but I really hope we see 5 or 6 overland zones in this next expansion.
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Antonia Bayles Bit on the side
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Yes, Rise of Kunark really nailed it in that regard with KP, KJ, Fens, and JW, all of which were like x4 larger or something than previous overland zones we had seen, just a really solid expansion looking back in all regards.
I know it was a much bigger team back at the time of RoK and the zones have at least stayed big since, but the expansions in themselves have been feeling smaller and smaller (not counting zones and content added in later like with DoV, which is a pretty sizeable affair when you count Cobalt Scar and The Withered Lands).
The Ethernere stuff has been interesting, but a bit underwhelming in the last couple of years, and I imagine we’re not done with Ethernere either for awhile yet. It’s clear reusing / reworking those old overland zones – as ok as they have been – has helped the EQ2 team focus on designing dungeon instances particularly with the team continually being downsized with people being pulled off to go work on Next / Landmark / H1Z1 and any other secret titles that haven’t been revealed yet, which I am sure must be in the pipeline
With their new terrain tool though, I’m hoping they can put something a bit more interesting and substantial together in terms of overland content for the next expansion.
Ocean of Tears might be nice for sure, though I remember hearing EQ2’s engine has issues coping with water beyond that which we see in zones already, so I can’t imagine any huge expanses of water that would befit an OoT expansion, I am hope I am wrong on that though, and if that title is an EQ2 expansion then hopefully I am wrong, and who knows maybe they’ve made some progress in that regard.
Also, I wouldn’t ever rule Luclin out from the mix either, even though its shot to pieces, anything is possible. Probably not this expansion, but I’d be surprised if we don’t set foot on her again some day or even the moon of Drinal. *hums ‘Walking on the Moon’ by the Police*. I want to see Paludal Caverns EQ2 stylee.
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asepkx
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interesting. thanks for the link. 10 weeks to 10 hours is an unbelievable jump in productivity. of course that’s just the terrain. what goes on in the zone is still being fed by a reduced team so we shall wait and see what they can come up with.
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inire
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What concerns me is the overland spawn points. ToV had the worst mass of overland spawns, with aggro from 3-10 mobs just by standing in some spots. True, it made competition for mobs at the start of the expansion a lot easier, but now it is a respawn fest for my toons that do not have any gear yet. I know that the ToV dev who was responsible for the spawns was a new one, so hopefully they have gotten some experience under their belt by now.
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Jrel
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Please no water. We lag off enough in Dreadcutter as it s. I do like the idea of dinosaurs though. My ranger on a T-Rex… that is all!
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Tabri
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Pleas no water, rain, or massive flying things(wisps, flying snakes, etc) and no huge 50 mob encounters. sigh
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