EverQuest 2 Preview

Back in May 2002 SOE (Sony Online Entertainment), a major publisher in the world of online gaming, officially announced a full sequel to EverQuest, one of the most popular massively multiplayer online titles ever. The present version of EverQuest has managed to lure over 420,000 paying subscribers - and that’s no lie (just so you know, the game has more than 45 active servers). Verant Interactive and SOE are planning to do a complete makeover of the previous game, while maintaining all the aspects that made it so popular throughout the years. But, of course, the main buildup began as soon as the first official in-game screenshots were released. Clearly, Verant Interactive decided to enhance the visuals as much as possible. We’re hoping, as many EQ fans are as well, that this won’t influence the game’s overall performance. Well, considering Verant’s reputation there’s no apparent reason why we should worry about that.

Despite its huge crowd of subscribers that have perpetuated the game’s reputation, EverQuest displayed several gameplay weaknesses. This time, Verant has decided to address these matters in EQ2, so that players can relax and fully enjoy their online adventures. One of the chief problems in the previous game was the common tendency of players to use the so-called "camping" playing, which made the gameplay boring and somewhat sluggish. This doesn’t mean that "camping" will be barred, it just implies that Verant will take certain steps to make people actually play the game, instead of just sitting and waiting for something to happen. The newer generation of MMORPG’s, such as Asheron’s Call (and now Asheron’s Call 2) and Dark Age of Camelot, has already dealt with similar issues; basically, issues that have simply clogged online gameplay.

As for the team at Verant, one of their primary concerns was to minimize the downtime; after all, decreased downtime has now become a fundamental necessity for any respectable MMORPG. The idea for EverQuest 2 is to establish a balanced online system that can allow tenderfoot players to enjoy the game, without having to wait a month or two. I’m sure that most of you know how tiresome the first few weeks or even moths of playing can be. This is one of the main reasons why "camping" was such a frequent phenomenon in EverQuest. In order to mend this, the designing team of EverQuest 2 is determined to make a game that’s straightforward and easy-to-get-into. Recently, the game’s lead designer Bill Trost (who also worked on the previous EQ) unveiled that their main goal is to optimize the game for players who never had the opportunity to participate in a MMORPG (or any single-player RPG for that matter). So, I guess it’s safe to say that the game will be more newbie-friendly.

All the same, many experienced EQ avatars shouldn’t be disheartened, because Verant has announced they intend to keep plenty of the recognizable features of the old game. There are rumors going around that Verant is thinking of incorporating a special tribute to old-hand EQ players. Since EQ2 won’t allow you to transfer your avatar from EQ 1, the developers came up with the idea of creating in-game characters that are actually true descendants of veteran EQ gamers. This would be a cool addition to the game, if the developers decide to carry out the idea.

As the development of EverQuest II progresses, countless fan site forums have been contemplating what the team at Verant plans to do with the game. Since the game is almost a year away from release, many questions have still remained unanswered and Verant intends to keep it that way. This is why those forums are currently packed with innumerable speculations. For example, there will always be a certain number of EQ players who prefer engaging in PvP modes. So, that’s surely enough to compel Verant to come up with an idea for handling PvP in EQ II. The original EverQuest didn’t have a particularly elaborate solution for PvP encounters (which was probably one of the reasons why a majority of players hasn’t shown interest in participating in such modes). Even so, several servers have supported PvP in EQ, so there shouldn’t be any reason why Verant would exclude this feature completely. Naturally, an enjoyable PvP encounter calls for some serious balancing in terms of character class differences. Anyhow, we have yet to see how Verant plans to deal with this, but for the present, you can satisfy yourself with the notion that PvP will be included.

As for the character advancements and various skill systems, the development team is currently involved with adding a new trading/crafting system. We don’t know exactly how the crafting system will function in practice, but we are certain that those who possess trading skills will be able to create powerful items for other players. Additionally, the developers have announced a whole new approach to the fundamentals of skill advancement - there were no official verifications of how these new features would affect gameplay. A couple of things were confirmed though. Avatars are going to have the usual possibility of gaining experience during their adventures and quests in the lands of Norrath. This time players will be able to advance their skills and experience points without so much as drawing a blade. So yeah, that means that you don’t have to kill monsters and villains in order to progress. You can simply enjoy developing your character’s experience by performing within his or her area of expertise (be it trading or any other skill). For those of you who are uninformed, EQII will be involving three main skills Knowledge, Technique, and Arts. Knowledge concerns the level of items your avatar can collect and use; Technique defines how well you use your weapons (or any other items); and finally, Arts includes various simple functions like kicking and foraging. Another thing which was recently revealed was the fact that players won’t be loosing any experience points when their character dies - instead, the developers are working to establish a new experience debt system.

Verant has also promised to maintain a pretty loose approach in designing guild systems. We all know that the feeling of community is one of the main aspects of EverQuest which kept it alive all these years. Suffice it to say, Verant plans to include a number of tools specifically for the purpose of guilds and their maintenance. Which means, if you’re a guild owner, you can do anything you want (relatively speaking of course). As the development team clarified several times, they still wish to preserve an open-ended guild creation system, allowing players to form guilds with absolute freedom.

But the most radical alteration from the previous game is the increased quality of visual effects. With recently revealed footage Verant indicated that EverQuest II will be optimized for NVIDIA’s new GeForce FX line of cards. Apparently, an all-new 3D engine was designed, supporting some of the main features of this card and that means players will be able to enjoy a MMORPG with next-generation graphic qualities. From all of the media we’ve seen so far, the game looks rather promising. Although it’s still somewhat hard to predict how such a large-scale and highly-detailed 3D environment will be able to function properly online (and withstand 5,000 simultaneous users, possibly more...). According to the developers, their entire tech-team is working to optimize the game so that it works and acts completely smooth and without any obstructions.

As we excepted, the game will have loading sections - but, they’ll be very brief. One more important aspect is how Verant means to handle the transition between zones (yep, the game is going to be zone-divided once again). The latest reports from the dev. team have indicated that players will always be able to choose if they wish to pass from one zone to another (i.e. they will never be forced by battle or any similar event).

Also, there will be many new regions for you to explore and many old ones. In EverQuest II players will be heading far into the future - way ahead of the present EverQuest setting. This new period in the EverQuest timeline is called the Age of Destiny; it is an era which takes you deep into new and unexplored regions of the Norrath world. Veteran players will be thrilled to know that the game will also take you back to some familiar spots like, Qeynos, Freeport, Befallen, Bixies, and various other locations. Right now the developers are toying with a number of ideas for the game’s storyline and some of the locations. Many old places have remained in the game, but they have changed because of various historical events; such a fate has befallen Neirak, the Teir’Dal homeland, the coast of Faydwer (where a new city, called Visk, has been erected), etc. Locations and events in the game’s storyline have yet to be officially determined, so these are all mere contemplations for the moment.

Lately, the mounting hype surrounding EverQuest II started to draw in more and more gamers into the world of massively multiplayer online gaming. I wish to stress though, that some of the info you’ve read was based on the developer’s ideas throughout various stages of the game’s creation. When working on an MMO title, many things cannot be included until the very last minute. And, Verant cannot say anything for sure until they’ve seen how the first wave of users will react to the basic changes.

It was announced that the final game will be going online at the end of 2003, although Q1 2004 is a more likely release date. At this time, there has been no official word of any EQII beta-test program. Patience, all you EQ-ers! We’ll let you know more about it in due time.