Producer’s Letter: New Fabled, Ethereal Items, PvE & PvP Time-Locked Progression Servers, and More!
Feldon From EQ and EQ2 Executive Producer Holly “Windstalker” Longdale on the EQ2 Forums:
What’s Up for EQII?
We have a lot in store for our intrepid Everquest II players. We’re excited to be discussing the launch of two new Time-Locked Expansion Servers for PvE and PvP sometime this year.
Along with that, the team is moving forward with a strategy of treating our players as real gamers who don’t need to be handheld for everything they do. What this means is we feel we need to trust our players to learn and achieve things without us having to give you all the information ahead of time. There’s a big difference between “head southwest and uncover the mystery of the green fog” and “go find the green fog that I put on your map for you.” Our players are smart and we want EQII to be a thinker’s and strategist’s game.
Today we release a new Rumrunner home with a décor set for our decorators, a store version of the Zeppelin mount for anyone that likes to float about in style, and new Summer Ethereal items will start dropping in Altar of Malice heroic zones (including Rum Cellar) for our adventurers.
We’re also currently testing Character Restore and Item Restore functionality on Beta which we hope to release soon.
On Tuesday, June 23, we will release Echoes of Faydwer Fabled Dungeons with all new updated loot and fun for level 100. There are 3 heroic dungeons, 3 advanced solos and 1 raid with a challenge version. Here’s the zone list:
· The Fabled Acadechism [Heroic & Advanced Solo] · The Fabled Court of Innovation [Heroic & Advanced Solo] · The Fabled Crypt of Valdoon [Heroic & Advanced Solo] · The Fabled Freethinker Hideout [Raid & Challenge Raid]
Then, in early July, we’ll introduce the ability to quest and worship Erollisi as a god for new miracles and blessings.
We can’t forget Tinkerfest! It will launch on July 17 with new content!
And later in the summer, we’ll see more Ethereal weapon drops.
For those who are curious, we’re doing a fair amount of technical and backend work to help our performance and to move toward cross-server functionality. We also want to address server population issues. We’re focusing on the first part of this work which is adjusting our architecture.
We also have been continuing to work on the content for our release later this year. Toward the end of summer as we head into the Campaign release timeframe later this year, we’ll be releasing some prequel events and designers will be sharing details about upcoming features with you. Today in our Twitch stream, designers previewed an upcoming feature that allows you to increase stats on new equipment. We also have a new item type in the works for this year’s campaign referred to as Relics which are extremely powerful items where only one can be equipped at a time, per character. Kander, Caith, and Kaitheel (yikes!) discussed these features in our livestream today and you can watch the replay here.
We’re enormously grateful for the support of all of our players and we’re excited about what’s coming up for EverQuest II!
Sincerely, as always,
Holly “Windstalker” Longdale
Exec Producer, EQ & EQII
“It can’t be done.” They said. 🙄
…which is still true, for certain values of “it.” What you’re going to get is not what some would expect from a progression server, as the original Day 1 experience is not going to make a comeback.
What remains to be seen is the level of effort they’re willing to throw at balancing/tuning items, classes, and mobs for this environment. Personally, I hope it’s low, or it will cost us when it comes to new Live content.
kono
I highly doubt anyone believed it would have ever been like it was day 1 of launch. EQ1 progression servers aren’t even remotely like they were at launch, not even close.
EQ1 progression servers are a lot more close to their launch then EQ2 ones will ever be. EQ1 didn’t have major revamps that completely redid everything from the foundations of gameplay. Really the only huge differences is that you’re no longer playing on a 800×600 res screen with dial up and a small hole in the wall cluttered by a UI with fog ingame taking up anything 20 feet in front or above you. Oh and I guess some of the revamp overlands..which isn’t a huge deal since many of their layouts are true in familiarity with the originals (rectangle boxes). Also coming from someone who played on the 2011 Progression Servers and P99 emu server, the differences aren’t too day/night.
So when an EQ2 progression server occurs, expect no arch-types, no leveled armor, no 2004-05 overland group zones ect. Prepare for massive disappointment.
The changes are night and day to me, as I played EQ1 at launch. Zones, mobs, xp rate, spells, skills, items, damage, pets, etc. have many differences on the EQ1 progression servers.
I do agree that if the overland content difficulty isn’t bumped up, it will take away from the experience.
I dunno, I played P99 up to level 30 before getting a sense of deja vu of routine camp spots before getting bored again… there isn’t too much of a large difference with P99 and SoE’s Ragefire progression server.
I never understood why people cared so much for most of the overland content in EQ2. Most of it was worthless like in the EL, NF, Feerrott, Everfrost ect. There was a couple of notable farming areas, but the rest was always vacant outside the first few months when the servers were cluttered with players. Only major point on hunting in specific areas in the Enchanted Lands for example was for Heritage Quests. If I really wanted to do group stuff I would just hop in Runnyeye or Rivervale.
Thing is, even if overland difficulty among other things were reimplanted, people will know where to go to get the most out of XP, Loot, quests ect. Everyone knows which quests are pointless and which ones are highly sought out. So the people who will sit around ‘smelling the roses’ of nostalgia are going to be disappointed and complain once they realize that the hardcore will unlock Desert Of Flames in less then a month.
great two more dead servers
Theses servers won’t be dead at least until they get to the later content that actually hurt the game to begin with. I.E. After Kunark.
agreed. I know that me and my friends would start characters on a progression server.
Yeah, expansions after Kunark just didn’t have the same grand scale or adventure anymore. Still, if we get the Kunark era back, even on a Progression server, it’ll probably bring back a good sized crowd of people!
I think you underestimate the interest generated by a server like this versus much of the new content that could be coming out. Of course you are going to have the hardcore members who are actually still around to do that new content. But there are also many, many more that have quit with no interest in returning for new stuff that would resub in a heartbeat for something like this if done correctly.
I would play the progression server as the current content doesnt engage me at all
I agree id roll on a progression server – the new content the lore (rum cellar etc) doesnt interest me – it doesnt feel like Everquest anymore just like a bunch of ‘greatest hits’ instances in overland zones: a bit of Ssra, a bit of TOV, a bit of Pirates, etc
Why The Fabled Freethinker Hideout? Why?
Where is my Fabled Mayong? 🙁
We can hope. I wanted Fabled Halls of Growth or Fabled Estate
Both Emerald Halls and Unrest were shot down as possibilities during streams sometime last year.
I am surprised Mistmoore failed to made the cut, though. Surely Mayong was the most “fabled” element of that entire expansion.
kono
Fabled Castle Mistmore (contested and raid) and Fabled Unrest >>>>> Acadechism/CoI/Valdoon/Freethinker
Ask and listen to your customers next time 😥
Main issues with the progression server for me:
1) Gear revamp. They ruined all the old gear and made it super OP. How are they going to revert it?
2) Exp curve. Hasn’t the exp curve been changed massively? Maybe it’s just how OP we are at low levels now, but I remember it taking much longer to level.
3) Fast travel, super mounts, guild halls, ect. The world felt so much bigger and better without these conveniences. Even persistent instances significantly altered how the game was played, but that one might have been in a positive direction overall.
4) Heroics in overland zones. This one isn’t as gamebreaking as the other three, but the world was better when there was some sense of danger while out harvesting (for example).
#1 on your list is definitley my concern.
#2 is probably not too much of an issue. I know at least on the EQ1 progression servers they rolled exp back.
#3 Holly has spoken to this already saying that a lot of that can be turned off. No flying/gliding/leaping, slower mounts, no guild halls etc until the eras that they were released.
#4 I agree with. For me also, it’s not make or break but would be nice to have a challenge in the over lands. What I’d like to see is all over lands for the current era they are in be heroic (even if they weren’t originally) but then revert them to solo once the next expansion releases.
I got mixed feeling about the progression server. I.E. I got 13 levels 100’s and 2 toons I am raising. I would guess I would need to delete a couple of characters in order to start on a new server. Then there is the point of having put 9+ years into some of my toons, just to leave them behind. I was reading the official forums and it kind of sounded like they might finally be open to server transfers/mergers. The good news is at least they are really trying to do something now that is actually good for the game.
you can always buy a character slot. They are unlimited after all.
Progression servers can be a lot of fun. If this actually happens for EQ2, I forsee myself, the wife, and several friends hitting the new server and living there for a while. I still log into Fippy Darkpaw every so often just because visiting old school can be a blast.
I’m not sure the progression server will fill my needs. A lot of what I was looking for will not make it. Isle of Refuge, neighborhoods (Baubbleshire, etc).
And I wonder about other things – will the new classes be in (Channeler and beastlord?)
Just what will the starting experience be? Aren’t they mostly in expansion zones now? Darklight Wood, Gfay, TD, and New Halas – none of those zones were in at launch.
It seems like the new server will be exactly what we have now – it will just be new, and you won’t have access to certain content and features – but it won’t be anything we actually couldn’t do now with a little self discipline.
I was hoping they would actually turn time back, and we would get the starting isle, and the hoods back in freeport. If that does not happen then it is really not what I would be looking for either. I was hoping for that minimum but from what all I have read it basicly a new server but time locked.
So I’ll have to wait how many years before they reach TSO era, to raid that again ?
Pretty stoked for progression servers.
Funny, she had all that to say, and the only thing people care about is the progression server. Says a lot about the current state of the game.
I was more interested in the apparent abandonment of Blue quest dots. I certainly hope they give better hints than they do now to compensate for the loss of blue fog.
Yeah I loved that part. “Oh yeah, we only started this because of WoW but you guys are soooo smart you won’t even miss that so that is why we are going to stop doing it. Not because it takes a lot more time to do something like that and we can’t be bothered any more.”
They sure are the (transparent) Spin Masters up there at the good old DGC offices.
I’m not interested in going back to relive it all over again but I have no issue with those who do. IMO you can’t get back those 1st time thrills.
From all of the “I’d sub” comments the progression servers should definitely be sub-only. No F2P.