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The Tattered Notebook: Changes in EverQuest II's Dark(light)
EverQuest II's Qeynos update is due in just a few weeks. In recent editions of The Tattered Notebook, we've looked at some of the bigger changes, like "play as your avatar" and "level agnosticism" in the dungeon maker as well as the Qeynos city revamp. But in the build-up to the patch's due date, there has been a quiet change at the low levels. The new-player experience received yet another reworking with a few small, yet potentially significant, changes. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll spend some time looking at what's new for newbies in EverQuest II!
The Tattered Notebook: A grizzled veteran goes free-to-play
It's been almost a year now since EverQuest II Extended was officially launched, and I've resented every minute of its existence. From the moment it was first announced, on the eve of Fan Faire 2010, EQ2X has been my own personal Newman of the MMO world. It dominated the discussions at Fan Faire and put a damper on everyone's fun. And once it launched, it always seemed to be at the root of every problem. New invites to our guild on the live server dropped to just one in eight months (and that one invite was a real-life friend of a guildmate). The promised marketing campaign for EQII live got the shaft in favor of pushing the new free-to-play service. Forum snafus during the Velious beta were all because of the EQ2X forums. While thousands and thousands crammed the Freeport server and frolicked for free, I languished on the live server and even began to empathize with the Grinch. But now that EQ2X is almost a year old, I decided it's time for me to bury the hatchet and pay a visit to the free-to-play server. I rolled up a new character on a bronze account, and over the next several weeks, I'll be taking a close look at EverQuest II Extended. It's a journey in EQII free-to-play through the eyes of a longtime player. Read on for my first arrival!
Nights of the Dead to scare the living %$!# out of EverQuest II players
OK, perhaps EverQuest II's Nights of the Dead isn't as soul-rendingly terrifying as a good horror movie, but that doesn't mean it won't be a blast. EQII brings back its popular Halloween event just in time for the holiday, as Norrath gets a pumpkin makeover and has a resurgance of spooky sights and sounds in the black of the night. From today through November 8th, players can enjoy this in-game event by trick-or-treating in the major metropolises, taking on creepy quests and getting their hands on special items and crafting recipes. Just... be careful of the headless guardian, OK? It's hard to read Massively when you're missing your noggin. SOE isn't just dusting off Nights of the Dead from last year and calling it a day -- the company has added a number of new elements to the holiday for players both new and old. New Halas is joining the festivities this year, and there's a new quest, "Nights of the Dead Devotee" that promises a yummy reward or two. SOE's also added new costume illusions, new house items, and new recipes for those brave enough to venture out in the night alone. Live it up, because you may never see another sunrise!
The Tattered Notebook: Post-Halas Reborn interview with producer Dave Georgeson
Hello there, brave Norrathian adventurers! It is I, Seccia Ravenloft, back again from my recent excursion to track down "The One Final Truth." While I didn't find "The One Final Truth," I did run across Dave Georgeson again, and that made the whole excursion totally worth it. Last week, I noticed a fair number of you had some problems with Shader 3.0 in EverQuest II. I'm sorry to hear that your pathetic non-Tier'dal computers cannot handle the wonderous onslaught, but I certainly brought that up with Dave in this interview, as well as the controversial decision to remove the starting areas of Freeport and Qeynos. Plus, I may have even weaseled a small detail or two on the next expansion out of him, thanks to my incredible interrogation techniques. But why shall we delay the inevitable any longer? To the interview, quickly!
Rumor: EQII's next expansion returns to Velious
It's been a long road getting from there to here, it's been a long time, but my time is finally here. Oh wait, that's from the incredibly sappy theme song to Star Trek: Enterprise. My bad. But it does describe the wait for EverQuest II players to return to their old stomping grounds of Velious from the first EverQuest. That wait may soon be over, as ZAM is reporting that SOE has applied for the trademark "EverQuest II: Destiny of Velious." This comes on top of other recent hints, such as the Coldain dwarves in New Halas, so it shouldn't come as a total shocker to EQ II fanatics. The Scars of Velious was EverQuest's second expansion back in 2000, which featured the titular continent where snow, ice and dragons abounded. A decade later, and players may be able to return to their old stomping grounds to see the familiar sights, as well as the (undoubtedly) great changes that have come upon this land. Head over to read the speculation and news on ZAM.
New details and screenshots of EverQuest II's New Halas
If you're a fan of EverQuest II you are undoubtedly excited about the addition of New Halas to the game. Any and all information on the new area is welcomed by players. Sony Online Entertainment recently obliged their fan base with a wealth of new information, plus over a dozen screenshots to round it out. You'll be able to access New Halas from two different areas depending on your experience. New characters will need to go to Pilgrim's Landing just off the main island, while more experienced characters can take a griffin from the Butcherblock Docks. Once you've arrived, there are over 80 quests in the area -- more than enough to keep every visitor busy exploring for quite a while. If you're enough of a fan of New Halas that a temporary visit just isn't enough, you may just be in luck. Good or neutral aligned races and classes have the option to earn citizenship and make a permanent home on New Halas. Check out the gallery below for a look at the upcoming area, and check out the EverQuest II site for all the latest details. %Gallery-92155%
A look at EverQuest II's new Halas housing
EverQuest II is one of the few MMORPGs to offer robust player housing options, so imagine our collective excitement when a short Q&A session with housing designer Andres Rodriguez popped up on the official site. Rodriguez, responsible for designing the new houses for the forthcoming city of New Halas, talks about his visual influences as well as a few of the features players can expect to see when their dwellings become available in the city. "We were trying to give the housing in New Halas a very warm and inviting feel to contrast with the cold climate of the region. To do this, we decided to use a lot of wood and barbarian elements in the design of the houses. So the houses have a slight cabin feel to it with subtle barbarian elements and trims in it, to let the players use this space in any way they want. I'm always excited to see what players create within their homes," Rodriguez enthused. The houses will be offered with two, four, and six room floor plans, and all will feature views of the nearby sea. The sizes compare with those found in EQII's other cities, but the New Halas locales have been designed from the ground up to be very different stylistically. Check out the interview as well as our previous New Halas coverage. Finally, hit the jump for a gallery of the new interiors.
EverQuest II gives a sneak peek at New Halas
EverQuest II fans everywhere are glad to see the return of the fallen city Halas, lost during the Age of War thanks to the Rallosian horde. Now we're getting a sneak peek at New Halas, thanks to Game Designer Nathan McCall and Zone Artist Stacey Norman. McCall provides an interesting look at the lore behind Halas, the Age of War and the Age of Cataclysms. What's changed since then, where has Halas been, and what is behind its return? The short answer to these questions is that Mithaniel Marr, The God of Valor chose to return the city, establishing it on an icy land mass in the Frostfang Sea. The long answer is a great story full of familiar names for all of you lore fans. The frosty location of New Halas provided some interesting challenges for Stacey Norman - a city on an iceberg provides limited resources for landscaping. The stories behind both the design and the lore are well worth reading, so check them out!
Brenlo talks EverQuest II's future
Alan 'Brenlo' Crosby, Sony Online Entertainment's Senior Producer for EverQuest II, has dropped an epic forum post on the official boards detailing the future of the long-running MMORPG. For starters, he talks about the game's technical issues, specifically the recent server performance concerns. "Some servers are struggling a bit with the new load created by returning players, Battlegrounds, more items in the database, etc and are not reacting well. This is our engineering team's number one priority<," he said. He also touches on the much anticipated New Halas zone, indicating that it will finally see the light of day in the next patch and will be well worth the wait in terms of extended content, housing, and art design. Tweaks to the traveling system and itemization will also be made, and, though no specifics were given, feedback was solicited on both accounts. Battleground updates and tweaking are also in the pipeline, as is a new Storyteller UI system that promises to tie together Norrath's many quests in service of a larger, more meaningful story. Finally, Brenlo hinted at alternate rule set servers, mentioning PvP, permadeath, and progression as possibilities. He also dropped a few hints at the upcoming development cycle for this fiscal year. <"You should see at least one raid each update, of which there are four major updates planned for the next fiscal year. Details of those to follow but I can say they will be a mix of reworked content e.g. Lavastorm revamp, and all new content. Through the next year, we plan to bolster our events as well, eventually having one event each calendar month, providing more entertainment for you,"he said.
