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EverQuest II invites you backstage with a pair of Age of Discovery videos
Ignore the man behind the curtain! Bow before the great and powerful Smokejumper! Oh... what? It's OK if they see behind the curtain? Come on in, folks -- SOE's totally fine with you seeing what's going on backstage during the development of EverQuest II's Age of Discovery and has a couple videos to prove it. The first video is narrated by EQII Lead Game Designer Akil Hooper, who takes us on a lightning tour of the new Beastlords and their animal Warders. Hooper shows off the new additions to the UI that make viewing, customizing, and switching between the Warders possible. Flipping over to Age of Discovery's mercenaries feature, Game Designer Carlos Mora demonstrates how the system works. Players can hire one of 10 mercenary NPCs to form a temporary party, and Mercenaries have both a hiring fee and a salary that is withdrawn from your account every 30 minutes. Mora says that a couple of the mercs are more difficult to find -- and more unique -- but are worth the search. You can watch both of the behind-the-scenes videos after the jump!
EverQuest II Age of Discovery launch date, new features revealed
For months, EverQuest II fans have been patiently waiting for the launch date of the latest expansion, Age of Discovery. Fortunately, the wait is over: SOE has announced that Tuesday, December 6th is the official live date for EQII's free-to-play transition, the Age of Discovery, and the Freeport Reborn game update (GU62). Executive Producer Dave "SmokeJumper" Georgeson and EQII Associate Producer Emily "Domino" Taylor both took time to give Massively a tour of some of the new features, so read on for an up-close look at Beastlords, the new Freeport, mercenaries, and the dungeon maker, and check out some new screenshots in our gallery below!%Gallery-140534%
EverQuest II goes fully free-to-play: Our chat with Dave Georgeson
Earlier in the fall, Massively's EverQuest II column, The Tattered Notebook, took a look at the differences between the live servers and the free-to-play server and speculated on the possibility of making all servers free-to-play. As it turns out, we no longer need to speculate because SOE has officially announced that EverQuest II will make the full transition to free-to-play in early December. Just in time for the release of the newest expansion, Age of Discovery, all servers will now share the same subscription plans, Marketplace, and forums. Last week, Executive Producer Dave "SmokeJumper" Georgeson took time to share with us the details of the free-to-play transition as well as highlight some of the new features coming with the expansion. Read on for a look at what's to come for EQII.
The Tattered Notebook: Beastlord prep 101
EverQuest II's most recent update brought two new additions: the dungeon finder and the prelude event for the new Beastlord class that will arrive with the release of Age of Discovery. I was going to look at the dungeon finder this week, but it's had its share of problems, and with the team still working on tweaks to make it more useful, I figured I'd table it until some of the changes get patched. That means this week's Tattered Notebook is focused on the Beastlord. Closed beta is beginning, and while it's hard to believe, the expansion is due to launch in late November. There's no doubt that many of us will be rolling up Beastlords, so this is a perfect time to start making preparations in advance of launch day. Read on for a look at some tips to make your first few days as a Beastlord fun and enjoyable.
The Tattered Notebook: Exec. Producer Dave Georgeson on EverQuest II and EverQuest Next
If there's one thing that came out of Fan Faire about EQ Next, it's that no one will talk about EQ Next. No matter who you talked to, any time the subject came up, the answer was always, "I can't talk about that." However, Executive Producer Dave "SmokeJumper" Georgeson sat down with Massively during Fan Faire to talk more about EverQuest II, and during that interview, he did give a tiny glimpse into what that game would be like. In this week's Tattered Notebook, Massively gets the scoop on Beastlords, the dungeon builder, Freeport's revamp, and much more.
