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H1Z1 working hard on Steam early access prep
SOE Technical Director Tom Schenck penned the first dev blog for H1Z1 yesterday, saying that the team is in overdrive preparing the title for its debut on Steam Early Access. However, in regard to a specific date as to when H1Z1 will be publicly available, Schenck wasn't sharing. Schenck said that the team is strongly focusing on getting the antagonists to look and play the part: "High priority on our Early Access feature list is polishing group behavior and tuning Emergent AI systems to the entire ecosystem. Our AI team is going nuts regulating interactions for all of the NPC characters in the game including zombies, deer, wolves, and more." Other stated priorities for the team right now include fine tuning melee combat, maxing out performance, and bug hunting.
EQ Next, Landmark to share combat systems
Although we knew that combat was going to be present in EverQuest Next Landmark in some capacity (Franchise Director Dave Georgeson mentioned getting leather for crafting way back at SOE Live), no actual details were known. Now, thanks to a Forbes interview with Georgeson we know that the combat system will have the same mechanics as EverQuest Next. The two games will also share the same emergent AI system, although Georgeson said that Landmark may not use it in the exact same way. So if the two games are sharing so many things, what is the point of having two separate full-fledged MMORPGs? Georgeson answered by stating, "EverQuest Next is more of a focused narrative with story arcs and rallying calls, [and] emergent AI pushing things around. Landmark is very much an exploration in creativity and making things that are cool to show off to other players." While combat won't be in Landmark right at launch, it will be implemented very soon afterwards. We guess the big question now is will you be playing EQ Next, Landmark, or both?
