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The Tattered Notebook: EverQuest II's Antonica public quest
EverQuest II's upcoming Qeynos revamp brings many new changes, but one that runs the risk of getting overlooked is a new public quest in Antonica. It's not necessarily a surprise that a low-level PQ would be added, since there was one in the Commonlands after the Freeport revamp. But I actually didn't discover it until I stumbled on a feedback thread in the testing forums. I'm a big fan of public quests because I think they're a great way of bringing people together without the traditional grouping hurdles, so I'm definitely rooting for this little PQ. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll take a peek at the Antonica public quest and see what's in store for Qeynosians with the arrival of game update 64, which is scheduled to hit live servers on July 24th.
The Tattered Notebook: Exploring EQII's Qeynos revamp
Back when the Freeport revamp was first announced, the first question I had was when will Qeynos get a facelift? EverQuest II fans have waited patiently, but finally, this past week, Qeynos got one step closer with its arrival on the test server. The Freeport revamp was a major undertaking, with brand-new architecture, new scalable city quests, and even a foreboding scene with Lucan carrying out his own special brand of justice on the Freeport denizens. But what does the new Qeynos look like? This week's Tattered Notebook features a little tour around town to see what's changed. Read on for the low down!
The Tattered Notebook: Skyshrine, mercs, Qeynos, and shields that roar
For those gamers who have been patiently waiting to hear about GU63, the past few weeks have been a treat. We've shown off a few trailers on Massively, the official site has hosted a couple of team interviews, and even the SOE Twitch TV channel has been focused on EverQuest II. In fact, the recent webcast was the second part of a featured series on the update, and this one took a closer look Skyshrine and also answered a few fan questions. EQII Producer Holly "Windstalker" Longdale, Lead Designer Akil "Lyndro" Hooper, and SOE Executive Producer Dave "SmokeJumper" Georgeson sat down to preview what's coming to a server near you. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll look at the highlights and analyze what it means to both new players and old. Read on for the skinny!
E3 2011: EverQuest II's Dave Georgeson in 3-D
If you're going to fly, why not fly with a little style -- and in 3-D? At E3, we were able to grab some facetime with Dave "Smokejumper" Georgeson, EverQuest II's executive producer, as he showed us the next dimension of MMO gameplay while we checked out some of the new aerial races in the game. "We wanted to do a little more with the flying creatures than to go from Point A to Point B," Georgeson said, referencing EQII's aerial races. "So we put in these flying race courses, which is a good test ground for showing off 3-D." It's one of those things that has to be seen to be believed. The 3-D effect while flying is, in a word, awesome. The user interface is up close, your character is somewhere in the middle, and the environment is in the background. The effect is very noticeable when you turn, which happens a lot while flying. Hit the jump to hear more of Georgeson's thoughts on 3-D in EverQuest II as well as a get tantalizing sneak peek at the game's future!
The Tattered Notebook: Dave Georgeson on EQII's Children of War
Even though Destiny of Velious has only been out for a couple of months, EverQuest II is about to see some big improvements and new content in the upcoming Game Update 60, Children of War. Despite the recent cuts to Sony Online Entertainment's staff, the team working on EQII seems more focused than ever, and over the past couple of weeks, fans have received a constant stream of information on both near- and long-term plans for the game. In this week's Tattered Notebook, Senior Producer Dave "SmokeJumper" Georgeson was kind enough to take some time to talk about the future of EverQuest II. In a bit of a surprise, he discusses how the team will continue to release Velious content in the form of regular updates rather than a larger part II as originally planned. He also gives some detail on highlights from the next update as well as future plans. Multiple housing, deity changes, the Freeport revamp -- Georgeson sheds some light on all that and more. Read on for the interview!
The voice of the people: New EverQuest progression server named
Many current and soon-to-be-returning EverQuest fans are diligently keeping tabs on the new progression server. This unique server will allow players to travel back in time (in a way) to experience EQ from its humble beginnings through all of its expansion packs as they are rolled out at a measured pace. Now these fans have a name to put with the server: Fippy Darkpaw. This server name was the result of a one-week poll in which SOE offered six potential names for the new shard. According to EverQuest's website, "In the end, nothing could stop the raging juggernaut that was Fippy Darkpaw." Fippy is a well-known NPC with the suicidal tendency to attack Qeynos all by his lonesome. This new progression server is scheduled to open its doors in March. In the meantime, why not check out our recent interview with EQ Producer Thom Terrazas for more Norrathian news.
The Game Archaeologist and the NeverEnding Quest: The vets
We just had to start 2011 in style, didn't we? I knew that by invoking the sacred name of EverQuest, I'd be opening the door for thousands of collective years' worth of memories, opinions, frustrations, nostalgia, gushing and blocky screenshots. But the Game Archaeologist fears not even the greatest mountain in MMO legend; it had to be climbed sooner or later. And of course, who better to guide you up the mountain than a few EQ Sherpas who know the way? Sure, they might try to steal the idol and not throw me the whip in the end, but that was a very real risk I was willing to take to get the full story. So today I'd like to introduce you to three EverQuest veterans who are all now world-famous bloggers. If you sense a connection between these two facts, I will only hint at the possibility of a secret society in SOE's headquarters that bestows great blessings upon its faithful fans. Hit the jump to meet this EQ trio and hear what they had to say about the MMO that profoundly affected their playing careers!
The Tattered Notebook: Mask of the betrayer
You know, there's something decidedly ironic about playing a rat in an MMORPG, particularly in a themepark grinder like EverQuest II (and before anyone burns me at the stake, it's a good themepark grinder, I'm positively in love with it). The parallels are almost too perfect. Rats chase cheese and players chase digital carrots, running around a pre-defined maze with numerous boundaries, roadblocks, and invisible walls just like your average lab rodent. Luckily EQII camouflages these minor irritations better than most games, even on fairly grinderific content like the city betrayal quest series. Yes, I've returned to playing my ratonga after a week of cheating on him with a shiny new shadowknight, and I've finally managed to move his furry little butt away from the abusive stylings of Freeport to a comfy little four-room rat hole off the side streets of South Qeynos. Turn the page for more on his journey and thumb through his gallery below. %Gallery-98135%
EQII's Dave Georgeson talks battlegrounds, starter cities
Now that this year's E3 is safely in the rear-view mirror, more MMO-centric news from the show is slowly filtering out of outlets around the web as writers are able to collect their interview notes and put fingers to keyboards. One such piece features EverQuest II's Dave Georgeson, the new producer on the long-running fantasy MMORPG, who sat down with Ten Ton Hammer to chat about changes coming soon to the world of Norrath. Georgeson indicates that the updates will be revealed at this year's SOE Fan Faire. In the meantime, he mentions tweaks to the beloved cities of Freeport and Qeynos, recently removed as starter city options to the chagrin of many veteran players. "I think the business as usual model needs to change. It would be so much better if we can put back some of the richness into the game so we don't have the empty world syndrome. We're going to be offering some new things here in the future that are really going to shake things up a bit," Georgeson says. He also touches on the problems inherent in the new Battlegrounds system, as well as hints at plans to address it eventually. "I think that people who are just casually going in are getting worked by people who have a lot of PvP gear and because of that we are seeing that people aren't going in without a full board commitment. Because not a lot of new people are going in we basically have the same set of people playing over and over again. Battlegrounds is a really good feature and we will continue to support it, we like it a lot; it's just under performing for the amount of effort we put into it," he says.
The Tattered Notebook: I'm in ur community, stalking ur threads
Last week's small little interview was fun, but this week it's time to get back to business. I haven't stalked threads in the forum for a while now, and I'm afraid that I'm losing my touch. So this week I've dived back into the official EverQuest II forums to bring up the most recent discussion topics -- many of them centered on the changes made during Halas Reborn. Freeport and Qeynos still dominate the hot topic list, suggestions for things Dave Georgeson should fix in the game are being collected, and one thread muses on the past and future of the game. In short, don't miss out on this week's entry in my Tattered Notebook. Do not disgrace the power of the Tier'dal, as the Community Manager Dark Elf has done! Otherwise I will have to invent stern punishments, like withholding lolcats from the internet. Do not force my hand!
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!
EQ2 nerfs Qeynos and Freeport starting areas
Lost amid the lengthy patch notes for Everquest II's recent Halas Reborn update is a curious decision by the developers at Sony Online Entertainment. The game's two traditional starting locations, the Isle of Refuge and the Outpost of the Overlord (which feed into the capital cities of Qeynos and Freeport, respectively), have been removed as choices at character creation. On the surface it doesn't seem like such a big deal, as the game has several unique starting locales including Neriak, Timorous Deep, Kelethin, and the newly minted frozen north of New Halas. That said, nostalgia can be a powerful thing, and a titanic thread lamenting the changes has erupted on the game's official forums. The epic post (clocking in at 68 pages as of press time) is overwhelmingly against the change, with a few dissenters piping up to say good riddance to the venerable newbie islands. Despite the player outrage, it seems as if the decision will stand and is in fact part of a larger revamp in progress. "Primarily, the starting islands and following content, simply put, are not up to the standards of the newer starting cities. Players who start in these zones are at a disadvantage when compared to players who start in the newer zones. In the more recent starting zones, the play experience is laid out better, with improved loot and quests. From an art and design standpoint, the islands were great five years ago when the game launched, but the game has changed and improved in many ways and we don't feel the newbie islands are as good as they should be today," said SOE's Cronyn. It's also worth noting that the island content has not been removed from the game entirely as some have speculated. Characters created (and not advanced) prior to the Halas Reborn patch are still on the two starting isles, and will still feed into Qeynos and Freeport upon completion of the quest line. [Thanks to Khrong for the heads up.]
Chaotic prelude in new EverQuest II game update
It's easy to become complacent in an MMO, and it's always good news for the players (though not so much the characters) when things get shaken up dramatically. Cue the most recent game update to EverQuest II, in which all sorts of madness is breaking loose. Two of the game's most central cities, Qeynos and Freeport, are both suffering from major disruption. Deathknell Citadel has vanished over Freeport, queueing up an almost immediate elimination of the city's tenuous peace with the Overlord's disappearance. Qeynos, meanwhile, is having information and the lineage of the royal family assaulted, preventing them from doing much beyond surveying the chaos in Freeport. There's an excellent trailer for the event that should help get players ready for what's coming in the near future. The update itself is a prelude to the upcoming Sentinel's Fate expansion, which launches early next year. While a great deal of the patch has been devoted to relentless bug-squishing, it's hard not to get into the energy of an update that attacks a very core part of the game, so if you're playing EverQuest II what are you waiting for? Log in and start helping to restore order... or attacking everything in sight and spreading chaos. It's really up to you.
One Shots: Bear necessities
What's cute, fuzzy, and comes from EverQuest II? Today's One Shots from Angelix, which features a faux bear 'family' in Qeynos. She writes in: This is a picture of me after using a bear totem with a baby bear (looking like a momma bear, woohoo) after a thunder storm in South Qeynos, just as light rain started with a beautiful purple sky, it just looked so cute and cool, I had to send it. We're always glad to hear from the EverQuest II crowd! One Shots needs your screenshots - no matter what game you're playing. Gather some up and email them to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name and the game its from. We'll post your screens and give you credit for capturing the moment.%Gallery-9798%
The Daily Grind: "Are we there yet?"
Some of you surely played EverQuest back in the day. Whether it was your first MMO or not, one thing's for sure: it was the first huge MMO. When we say huge, we're not referring to subscription numbers; we're talking about the size of the world. It was much grander than that of Ultima Online, Everyone who played EQ remembers his or her first trip from Freeport to Qeynos or vice versa.That trip was a very dire one, especially for a level 10 character. If memory serves, you had to go through Kithicor, the goblin dungeon of Runnyeye, the Beholder's maze (that was the most dangerous part, since it was all narrow canyons), the orc-sieged Highpass Hold, and of course all of the Karanas, griffins and giants be damned. It was not safe. It also took a really, really long time. If you were coming originally from Faydwer, before any of this you also had to take a fairly long boat ride -- certainly much longer than the almost-instant inter-continental rides in World of Warcraft.But the journey was exciting. It actually felt like it was an epic adventure. In most recent MMOs, fast travel is prevalent and everything is streamlined to take as little time as possible. As the genre has become more casual with regards to travel time and danger, have we lost something? Are there no more epic cross-continental treks full of thrilling close calls?
Massively explores EQ's upcoming expansion, Seeds of Destruction
On October 21, SOE's EverQuest will release its 15th expansion, the Seeds of Destruction. Along with with a level cap raise from 80 to 85 and twenty new zones, EQ will also introduce a new Mercenary system to the game. Long considered a grouping dependent game, players have often struggled to find a group at odd hours or on low-population servers. SOE's solution is the new ability for players to hire NPC tanks and healers. These fill-ins will do the job adequately until the group slot can be filled with another player.What of those 20 new zones? Some are re-imagined classic zones and some are entirely new. And they all are tied together with the new storyline. The agents of Discord have tampered with Norrath's timeline to engineer the destruction of the planet. Players must travel back in time to make sure history goes as planned, even if it means letting good people die and treacherous creatures prevail.Though we've interviewed the design team, read the lore as well as watched an introductory video, we were given our own tour of the expansion by Lead Designer Ryan Barker. You can join us in the tour either by clicking on the first picture below or heading after the jump to watch the 2 minute video of expansion highlights we recorded. EQ expansion tour begins here >> Watch the video here >> %Gallery-32253%
The history of EverQuest's city of Qeynos
EverQuest's Norrath is a storied place, with nooks and crannies full of unique characters and interesting lore. Even the smallest part of the Norrathian landscape has a tale to tell. Qeynos - one of the mightiest cities of the realm - is wall to wall with personal tales and unique businesses. The official EQ Players site has a lengthy post up, talking about the history of that fair city from the North Gate all the way to Fish's Ale.The level of depth in the article is a little staggering. It starts with a breakdown of the three zones that make up the city, and moves on into the lineage of Antonius Bayle III (ancestor of EverQuest 2's lady ruler Antonia Bayle). From there, the piece walks through each and every business in the city; a huge number of individualized buildings each with their own little personalities. The official forums offers a place to see players' reactions to the in-game city, and we're always interested to hear your thoughts, as well.
EQII Game Update 43 preview shows new features and lots of pics
EQ2Players has put up another preview for EverQuest II's Game Update 43, and not only does this one have a large amount of pretty pictures, it also details some new features that we didn't see in the last preview. As well as the group looting and shiny harvesting changes, major cities will be revamped with some new travel bells and extra banking/broker/mender NPCs, and significant renovations will be made to the Ironforge Exchange in Qeynos.For the tradeskillers, new Froglok mannequins will be available to craft, and there will also be some faction items for those those with good Riliss, Bathezid and Danak factions. An example of one of these items is shown above -- the Crafted Vault Expander -- and it makes you wonder what other kind of handy crafted goods might be coming. Check out the gallery we've compiled of all the pictures featured in the GU43 preview.%Gallery-17446%
