Starting the EverQuest II: Freeport and Beyond panel…
Pre-panel Buzz: EQ2Players is being replaced with a new site. Sometime this year, it’s a priority, which it hasn’t been before.
Dave Georgeson starting the panel. There’s so much info, they’ll be giving that first and then Q&A at the end.
Update: This is a video of EverQuest II Panel #1 “Freeport and Beyond” added on July 14, 2011.
Last night we got our first glimpse at the next EQ2 expansion, EverQuest II: Age of Discovery. And believe it or not, it’s coming this fall — November 2011. So much for my predictions that the next EQ2 expansion would be summer or fall 2012. Now you may be saying to yourself, wait a minute didn’t we have an expansion this February?
EverQuest II: Age of Discovery, while it will undoubtedly have new content, will be largely a Features expansion. Destiny of Velious content, including overland zones, group dungeons, and raids will continue to be released in content updates in August, November, and well into 2012 2013. This is a new approach to expansions as usually, once a new expansion has been released, previous expansions have rarely gotten new dungeons or content besides quest revamps, etc.
beast lord is the 25th class!
Linda “Brasse” Carlson is starting out with the sponsors and and then about GameBreaker.tv’s live cast of the event. Vivox is also broadcasting the event in-game.
Talking about the panels tomorrow including Dev War Stories, also tomorrow night’s Pool Party. Introducing Backstage Bloggers using Bloggie cameras. Showing pictures of Guides in different SOE games.
SOE President John Smedley coming to the stage… Prepare for big announcements…
From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums:
I rarely, and I mean once-every-few-years, make slips when talking to the press. But I had done tons of internal presentations about it and it slipped in the heat of conversation with the journo.
But that being said, we’re not going to reveal anything else until Fan Faire where it will get its great unveiling, as planned.
However, I will say this one thing to squash the rumor. This is not introducing a “Marketplace Class” and this new class will not be sold for SC.
That’s it. That’s really all I’m going to post about this until Fan Faire. No more responses on this subject. Sorry, folks.
Massively.com is in Los Angeles covering this year’s E3 and spoke to Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson, Executive Producer of EQ1 and EQ2 about the future of EQ2. We have already heard some about the revamp of Freeport and Qeynos which will evolve these starting cities into full-fledged quest hubs that will drive character development from levels 1-90. The breaking news for today is that we can expect a 25th character class and the ability to group cross-server.
So what’s next for the game? Georgeson laughed when we asked this and said, “We’re going to start relying a lot less on expansion packs to create content for the game, and what we’re going to do is create lots and lots of content and put it out there on a quarterly basis for free.”
As we already learned in the last Producer’s Letter, Destiny of Velious will continue to be released/completed as free quarterly content updates rather than as a followup “part 2” expansion.
This means that the game’s next expansion will concentrate more on adding features to the game while the team will deliver the content through free updates. “People need new challenges on a regular basis,” he explained. He even speculated on a future model by which expansions are completely done away with, leaving players to purchase features on an individual basis.
So we’ve been thinking about last night’s Producer’s Letter which lays out a little bit of the future of EQ2. Our thoughts:
Think about every quest, NPC, and clicky item in Freeport’s 10 subzones (North Freeport, South Freeport, East Freeport, West Freeport, Beggar’s Court, Stonestair Byway, Temple Street, Longshadow Alley, Big Bend, Scale Yard). Now imagine having to relocate them to a new zone/map/artwork, test them all, and make sure they all still work.
Now revamp any flavor or quest text which is long since obsolete such as NPCs wondering when Kunark, Velious, Odus, etc. are going to be discovered. Now revamp the instances linking off Freeport to be new style level 1-30 content with quest hubs, etc.
That sounds like almost as much work as an expansion.
A careful reading of the Producer’s Letter would suggest that we will receive most or all of the rest of Velious through Game Updates, rather than buying another expansion in November, or next February. Morghus asked if we will see the continuation/completion of Velious:
Sounds interesting, does that imply that we will be getting the “rest” of Velious, in regards to new raids/cities/overland quest areas and dungeons dealing with the dragon half of the continent in the future?
SmokeJumper replied with an affirmative “Yes“.
From the EQ2 Forums:
Fellow Adventurers,
We wanted to share this information with you here, rather than having you read about it on another site. The EQII community is a large part of the ongoing success of SOE, and the game is in a strong position to succeed. Development continues unabated on EverQuest II, and you can look forward to a Producer’s Letter next week with more information about what lies ahead for the game’s development in 2011.
For those who wish to comment, please use THIS thread. It will remain unlocked as long as conversation remains constructive and polite. Our CMs and Mods have been asked to redirect all other related posts to this one as well.
~Linda “Brasse” Carlson
Director, Global Community Relations
Following is the official notice that you may see on other sites:
As part of a strategic decision to reduce costs and streamline its global workforce, SOE announced today that it will eliminate 205 positions and close its Denver, Seattle and Tucson studios. As part of this restructuring, SOE is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games. All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern.
This strategic decision will have no impact on SOE’s current portfolio of live games; additionally SOE will transition development efforts for the Denver and Tucson studios’ suite of products to its San Diego headquarters. This strategic alignment of development resources better positions SOE to remain a global leader in online gaming and deliver on its promise of creating entertaining games for players of all ages, and servicing the 20 million players that visited SOE servers in just the past year.
SmokeJumper has assured players in a thread “Where did my adventure go?!” that not only does EQ2 have a long-term plan besides the standard game updates and expansions, but that much will be revealed soon. If you have taken for granted that next year’s expansion will be Velious Part 2, raising the level cap to 100, you may want to read on!
Watch this space. I’ll be posting stuff soon to describe this year’s slate. Probably next week sometime, maybe the week after. We’re going to be doing some VERY cool stuff this year and I think you’ll start to see more and more of the kinds of things you mention here.
We’re already one of the best. Now it’s time to get unique.
and:
We’ll be posting next year’s slate of coming attractions soon.
Considering the extremely tight leash that Marketing and PR have kept the EQ2 team on in the recent past, it just seems unlikely that all the permissions have been acquired to tell us what’s coming more than a few months out. We’ve never gotten information that far in advance (except Fan Faire), so consider us skeptical.
I have a confession to make…
I did few quests in The Shadow Odyssey, and fewer still in Sentinel’s Fate (Odus). Beyond grouping, raiding, and the quests associated with such, my heart just has not been “in it”. After dragging three characters each through Kunark‘s 400 mostly runaround timesink errand quests, few of which had much impact on the overall storylines of Norrath, I vowed to level and earn AAs in future expansions by grouping — even if it had the rush of excitement and expedience of watching paint dry.
So after basically taking Sentinel’s Fate off, I vowed to jump into Destiny of Velious headfirst and do as much content as I could.
I’d have to double check, but I believe I have completed every one of the non-repeatable Othmir questlines including both Fina’s Retreat in the Great Divide and Nipik’s Haven in the Eastern Wastes. I’ve also done all of the Snowfang Gnoll quests, most of the Thurgadin, and about 1/3 of the Ry’Gorr quests.
For the last day of the Destiny of Velious launch celebrations, every EQ2 and EQ2X player from level 1-90 is able to travel to Lavastorm, Butcherblock Mountains, or Tenebrous Tangle and fly around using a Tinkered flying machine. The quest and event has been placed near the entrance of the zone, thus the level of enemies should not prevent celebrations by all players of all levels.
Once you compete in a race through airborne rings in the allotted time, you receive a temporary flying contraption which is NO ZONE but which you can use to fully explore the entire zone and see just how much fun Flying Mounts are. After completing the race five times, you will receive a permanent C.R.A.S.H. Pad reward which is an appearance flying mount which requires having completed any flying mount quest to use, but can also be used as a 25% ground speed mount. If you love flying, but were hoping for an alternative to the various Gryphon mounts, here’s your chance.
Rewards:
And according to Wilhelmina, there are special titles for finishing the course within a certain time:
From EverQuest2.com:
February 26: Double XP Day
Adventure, tradeskill, and AA XP gain are doubled. Saturday only!
February 27: Loot Bonanza Day
Today only, all named monsters will drop loot at 100% probability. Rare mobs will have doubled loot drop chances.
February 28: Expansion Upgrade Day
If you already own the Standard Edition, upgrade to Destiny of Velious Collector’s Edition for $25 on this day only. Pick up the Digital Collector’s Edition and enjoy the bonus items; Cryomantic Armor, the Stormfeather Brood Guardian Mount, Tserinna’s Wedding Present, and the Everfrost Summer Home (seen at this link).
A syndrome that I think many people who write about MMOs experience is that find ourselves actually PLAYING the game less and less. I’m certainly guilty of this myself. We get interested in a game, start writing about it based on our experience, and next thing you know we aren’t catching groups or raids anymore. So with Velious I made a commitment to get back in the game.
So one of my first experiences has been getting into Public Quests, which spawned the article yesterday. The concept certainly makes for an interesting type of content, one that was popular in Warhammer and is a huge draw for the new Rift. So far, I have heard feedback from quite a few players who have checked out Public Quests and have gotten mixed results.
Since the launch of the Destiny of Velious, there have been nearly 250 posts by Developers, Producers, and Animators on the EQ2 Team. While we appreciate this degree of feedback (it’s refreshing after the tight-lipped Velious Beta), it has been challenging to keep with it all, much less compose it into news stories that have context and are useful for our readers.
No doubt if you are already familiar with the EQ2 Dev Tracker, you check it out on occasion. I personally follow the EQ2 Dev Tracker at EQ2Flames because it’s easy to read, however the comments and feedback may be a bit blue for your tastes.
There is an avalanche of feedback about bugs and design issues with Quests, Armor, Reflections, Public Quests, Heroic and Raid Dungeons, Access Quests, etc. etc. If you haven’t been reading it, you may not be aware that there is renewed discussion about a /sit command (and possibly others), or about incoming fixes to any number of things which were discovered during or after Beta.
The Tower of Frozen Shadow presents a unique, but familiar approach to dungeon progression. Although the seven (or is it eight?!?) floors of the Tower of Frozen Shadow are split up into 3 group instanced dungeons (Shadowed Corridors, Umbral Halls, and Haunt of Syl’Tor), there are quests that span all three. Completion of those quests is necessary to unlock different floors in the Tower.
UPDATE: Added quotes from Gninja.
So if you played in the Beta, or heard tales, you know that like past betas, the solo overland content was rather… challenging. We’re talking badgers and gnolls that ignore 30-40% of damage done to them, have upwards of 100,000 hp, and put out damage in the thousands. Notorious were the crystal spiders needed for the flying mount quest which, if they successfully poisoned you, were doing upwards of 4,000 damage *per tick* until cured. If you didn’t whip out a potion or use that click-to-cure, you were dead in seconds.
2 weeks before Velious Beta ended, SmokeJumper admitted that it was too difficult and so sweeping changes were made. Players who were originally getting slaughtered in Velious overland zones were then able to with stand 2-3 mobs beating on them with few ill effects. When Beta closed, we had been told that more changes would be made to try to strike a balance.
What we’ve seen so far in Velious is that things were tweaked to still present a challenge, but some of the tougher effects have been dialed down.
It seems every year, thousands of bug reports are submitted to the EQ2 team during Beta. And it seems every year, a few highly visible bugs/exploits make it through. Last year, it was large encounters in The Hole that would respawn if all but one mob were killed. In The Shadow Odyssey beta it was widely reported that most of the dungeons could be completed when mentored down and greyed out.
So this year, so far we know of two:
Lord Doljonijiarnimorinar (Lord Bob) could be exploited to provide loot over and over. Lord Bob was fixed in today’s hotfix.
From EverQuest2.com:
February 22: Othmir Day
Everyone who logs in on Launch Day, February 22nd, will receive an Othmir illusion potion. (Even those who aren’t playing in Velious!) The potion has 50 charges, and is available one per character. Just be sure to log in each of your characters during the day to claim a potion, if you want the illusion for more than one character.
This event will run at least until 10am pst (1pm cst, 18:00 gmt). According to some posts by SmokeJumper, this may be extended especially on Everfrost and Freeport which weren’t up until late last night. Remember, to claim this item, go to the Marketplace and select Expansion, then Nipik’s Gift.
February 23: Guild Double XP Day
Build up your guild and your guild spirit with Double Guild XP, today only!
Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but this seems an odd day to do Guild Double XP. It will likely give something to do for people who didn’t buy Velious or don’t have a level 86+.
February 24: Free Transfer Day
One day only! Get a free character transfer token from the in-game Marketplace and choose your own server. Up to five moves allowed per account.
NOTE: This is transfers WITHIN an account, but not BETWEEN accounts, as this still requires the involvement of Customer Service.
February 25: Snow Days Discounts
Every day’s a snow day in Velious, but today you’ll find lots of cool prices on frosty-themed items in the Marketplace.
In a thread pondering when we might see the rest of Velious, SmokeJumper hinted much:
We didn’t do the Wakening Lands. We just have that one small tribute area to it. Think of it as a doorway to a potential future area.
and:
We intend to grow a lot of the Velious stuff you’re missing. I have to stay mum for a bit until I get approval on *how* we want to roll it out to you, so I can’t say much else at the moment. Sorry.
From Domino on the EQ2 Forums:
I spent the afternoon today lurking around listening in channels, including the homeshow channel, and heard quite a few comments about some changes to water textures and reflections. (Thanks to all who provided details!)
I talked to GermInUSA, who has been working on improving water and reflections lately. The quick fix is to turn on this display option:
Ctrl-O (open your options); click the advanced button; under the display options, in the “water” section, tick the “water reflections” tick box. (Despite the name, this also affects non-water reflections.)
Rothgar, Zoltaroth, and others on the EQ2 team, as well as OPS (Operations) were up until all hours trying to wrangle Everfrost and the Freeport [EQ2X] servers into behaving reliably. But first, a quick fix for Everfrost players who are missing characters:
Everfrost players who are still missing characters are encouraged to follow the instructions on the EQ2 Forums. In short, go to your EQ2 folder and delete your LoginCache and LoginCache-US folders, as well as any <Servername>_characters.ini files.
After a 4 hour delayed launch, Destiny of Velious went live this afternoon at 1:00pm PST [4:00pm EST; 9:00pm GMT].
Here is an accounting of various issues players are reporting with today’s expansion…
Q: How do I get to the new Velious zones?
A: Head to Sinking Sands and speak to an Othmir Ambassador.
Q: Where do I find the Destiny of Velious Update Notes?
A: Destiny of Velious/Game Update 59 Notes
Q: How do I get my Othmir illusion with 50 charges?
A: Go to the Marketplace, choose Expansion, then Nipik’s Gift.
Q: How do I get started on Flying Mounts for adventure, tradeskill, or Freeblood?
A: EQ2 ZAM’s Flying Mounts Guide
More questions and answers after the jump…
UPDATE: Destiny of Velious is now LIVE after a 4 hour delay.
Just 2 1/2 hours late, Destiny of Velious is now LIVE!!
False alarms are the pits.
It seems that all has not gone smoothly for the Destiny of Velious expansion launch. We are now +45 minutes with no sign of time estimate on when Velious will make its appearance.
No word on Script Rewrites, OSHA Violations (think of the poor gnomes), or Work Visa checks (are those Freebloods from Romania, Hungary, or Druidia?).
From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums:
Well…launches always have at least one “gotcha” in them to make sure we’re awake and paying attention, I suppose.
We’ve got a missing asset issue that we’re troubleshooting right now. The gates will open as soon as we get it resolved.
More soon!
and later:
We’re missing some assets and working to get that resolved now.
As soon as that’s fixed, we’re good-to-go! No ETA yet, but we’re working on it.
We are receiving wild estimates about how long Velious could be delayed, some up to 3 hours.
