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EverQuest's Temple of the Sea unveiled in new video
Sony Online Entertainment is ramping up the publicity for EverQuest's 18th expansion. The Veil of Alaris content pack is scheduled to debut this November, and the latest teaser on offer from SOE takes us deep inside Rubak Oseka (otherwise known as the Temple of the Sea). In terms of EQ lore, the temple was constructed using an enormous conch shell and is dedicated to one of the greatest heroes of the Alaran people. In the real world, the zone is the handiwork of designers Ed Hardin and Norm Freeman, along with environment artist Alan Bond. All three offer a bit of insight via the latest Veil of Alaris preview video, and you can see it after the break.
EverQuest devs talk progression server on new Live Cast
Ladies and gentleman, start your time machines! Today marks the launch of EverQuest's Fippy Darkpaw progression server, and SOE has a trio of new Live Cast videos with the dev team available for viewing on its YouTube channel. The discussion is hosted by Eric "Piestro" Cleaver and features lead designer Adam Bell, designer Ed Hardin, and lead programmer Steve Klug. Topics covered include the hows and whys of a progression server, the world and zone revamps, and the XP curve (which the team says will be slowed down quite a bit relative to the live game). "There are no 'hell levels,' but it will still be slower than it is on a normal server," Hardin says. The team also talks about how certain races and classes, and even the game's tutorial, won't be available from launch, as they're locked to certain expansions and will only become available as the progression server ages. Speaking of progressing, the devs have implemented a brand new voting system with a dedicated in-game UI in order to afford players the opportunity to choose when the server should move to the next expansion. As far as who gets to vote, Bell says that "you'll need to be on the progression server and at least level 30 in order to vote to unlock the next expansion, and we may raise that level as the expansion unlocks continue." Head past the cut to view the entire Live Cast in three parts.
