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EverQuest II: Age of Discovery & Freeport Reborn Preview
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Recently, Sony Online Entertainment announced that EverQuest II will be moving to a hybrid free to play revenue model on December 6th and that Age of Discovery, the game's latest expansion, would be launching near then as well. We recently had the opportunity to check out the Age of Discovery, including a look at Game Update 62 "Freeport Reborn" and the new Beastmaster. Check it out and then leave us your reaction in the comments.
Recently, I had the opportunity to sit in on a call and play the beta version of Everquest 2’s upcoming Age of Discovery Expansion. Attending for the SOE folks were EQ2’s Producer Dave Georgeson, Community Manager Jennifer Bridges, and Public Relations Manager Amelia Lukiman. On the gamer side sat Kotaku’s Mike Fahey and I. Scheduled to launch in unison with the Age of Discovery is Game Update 62 which brings a host of improvements to players along with the visual and gameplay overhaul of the city of Freeport. Mike and I had the chance to taste a bit of everything EQ2’s December has in store: from the Beastlord to the New Freeport, Mercenaries, and the Dungeon Maker to boot.
Read more of Bill Murphy's EverQuest II: Age of Discovery & Freeport Reborn Preview.
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Really looking forward to this. EQ2 has become a bit stale recently and i think this is exactly what the game needs. Most MMO's when they release an expansion always concentrate on raising the level cap and end game content. One of the many reasons i like EQ2 is there tendancty to make every other expansion a sideways expansion like this one, simply adding more content and features to the levelling process of the game
EQ2 is one of the few MMO's left where the journey to end game is as fun and as interesting as end game itself
If someone is talking in general chat in a language you dont understand, chances are they're not talking to you. So chill out and stop bitching about it!
Looks rather promising, But I wonder, has the capital city of the ''good guys'' a.k.a Qeynos (or whatchamacallit) also gotten a face-lift or is it just Freeport for now?
I have to agree. This expansion is looking pretty fantastic all around. Brand new class to play, tons of new collectable mechanics which I love for the new class and the dungeon maker. The dungeon maker itself sounds cool and might help build community more. Mercenaries to finally be able to do low level content no one else seems to run anymore, at least some of it. New crafting apprentice system, hopefully making a fun but long grind aspect of the game less of a grind? Not sure yet.
Qeynos is next on the revamp block, sometime next year. For now it's just Freeport that got the face-lift.
I still love EQ2.But the price tag for what is been offered is kind of steep and many eq2 players agree ,just go to eq2 flames or the offical eq2 forum or just bring up the topic in the channels ingame.
There is no new zones no new lore just a bunch of features.
We are not even sure if make your own dungeons works properly ,after all the dungeon finder is faulty as it is and thata feature other mmorpg have used before .
Try getting a group thru dungeon finder and be amazed at the times it takes ,then if you want the 25% bonus be ready to run shard of love like 90% of the time and did i mention how often you get in a group with 3 healers 2 dps and no tank or 3 tanks 2 dps and no healer.Also its not even cross server meaning wait time is terrible .
This "expansion" offers little to me personally.more AA but they are not even bothered to revamp the skill tree.
Zero lore,Zero new zones(just a promise to expand the last expansion zones ).
I was looking forward to this but after testing SWTOR at the weekend I think my sub money will be better spent there now, it really showed me how old and clunky EQ2 has become
You really cant say "Content" because ... there is no new content, there is game features, but no new content as such.
Freeport is NOT part of the expansion, i understand them tooting it because it fills out the expansion, but the Freeport Revamp is part of Gu62 which is available for all. The fact that GU62 hits at the same time of the expansion .. well thats another matter entirely.
Also, while alot of people drool over Beast Lords i for one is somewhat concerned that in a game with 24 classes which have proven notoriously impossible for SoE to even have somesort of class balance etc. what will this 25th class bring to the table in that case, besides being OP for about ... 12 months as is always the case for SoE.
And dont tell me DoV is content, because at Fan Faire 2010 (yes LAST year) they said that DoV part II and possibly III would be comming as free content, so it can not be counted as expansion content.
No, this expansion Pack is truely a feature box, and with the pricetag ... its way over priced for the fact that it brings NOTHING new to the game for those who actually ... you know, play the GAME and isnt obsessing about houses etc.
elocke
Thank you for the heads-up!
dunewarrior is right the score is very high and misleading for what is basically the weakest form of a expansion in eq2 history,
There is no new zones or lore at all thus the word content is misleading .only features.
Freeport revamp is not part of the expansion and is something they promised ages ago followed by qeynos .
They are presenting them together to cause an illusion.
You only have to look for my EQ2 posts to tell how much i support this game but this time SoE is just gone too far in their money grabbing scheme.Making us pay $40 for a new class,adding AA lazily not even revamping the trees,a dungeon maker that looks iffy at best and mercs(yet to see what that will work out as).
It actually looks like they want to grab $$ off people who might just play EQ2 till swtor launches .
S.O.E. = second to worst pubisher besides PWE when it comes to pay to win models. Avoid. Avoid . Avoid.
People who migrated from EQ to EQ2 (myself included) begged for Beastlords for years and they never listened. I mean it was a really big thing and they never budged. Now that everyone but F2P have left they bring it back. Just too little too late Im afraid.
I wont even touch that last comment, because anyone who knows SOE knows they have never endorsed a Pay to win model, and theres not one item on the marketplace that effects end game gamplay or has stats higher than anything available in game.
As far as all the naysayers complaining about not having new zones. Well, get over it. The zones are coming, I know for a fact theres Western Wastes, and all the zones connected to it, plus whatever dungeons and raids will be added. There will be AT LEAST the same number of existing Velious zones added, which means the number of velious zones will be doubling. The thing is, all the new 'content' you are touting about is gonna be given for free. Now of course they could have just held the expansion until sometime next year, and made you pay for the new zones like a normal expansion, or do what they are doing, which is to offer all new gameplay features and roll out the zones when they are ready.
Either way people you would be paying for an expansion, features for free and pay for zones, or zones for free and pay for features. Are you seriously stuck in your ways so much so that you can only pay for zones? You are gonna be getting the same 'content' its just packaged differently this time. One way or the other you would pay for an expansion, and Im shocked that people cant see this. Honestly if you cant put the two together, you probably are better off in Star Wars, at least then, when the game fails in 6 months, which it will (ie Aion, Conan, WAR, etc) and you come crawling back to EQ2 you will have the new zones to come back to.
Asian132 ...
All the content your talking about was promissed for free a year ago, it have no bearing on the case.
What people are saying is this (pay attention i cant make it much simpler)
The price is not worth what this - so called expansion pack - contains, the content listed in the review contains elements that got NOTHING to do with the same expansion pack.
Simple as that, argue all you want about changed business model yada yada... doesnt change that fact.
And .. you see i can chose NOT to pay - and i am, first time since launch im not purchasing an "expansion pack" - and the zones your telling me i will crawl back to play (dont think i said i was going anywhere, way to assume stuff right there, ill happily raid as ive done for years) will still be free.
Looks like more of an update than an actual expansion.
I am going with SWTOR, preordered. This will be the first expansion I have no bought, tired of SOE and it will be a long time before I play anything from them.
How isn t it bringing anything new, because theres no new raids? Minority is what you speak of. Lets see, beastmaster, seems new, mercs, seems new, DYOD, that seems new, Tradeskill app, hmm that seems new, seems as though you re not sure whats new and an "expansion" of a game.
I bought the last expansion wanting to play the vampires or "Freebloods" only to find out I had to pay another $20 Station Cash Shop to "unlock" the Freelboods. Well I did it, seeing I "assumed" the new race would be in the expainsion and it was just a big sham to me..just more of the same cluncky choppy empty world EQ2
While both needs the revamp I think Freep needs it more. Both cities are a bother to navigate though, the zooning drove me nuts and all my evil chars moved to Neriak ages ago (even though Neriak still had the huge lag issue back then).
But EQ2s real problem have always been the engine, the game is fun enough and have some really nice features, but it is rather prroly coded. Lag and sometimes annoyingly small zones are the things I wish they put more effort into.
Freep and Q ain't enough, they will have to fix all the oldest small zones.
so essentially what you are saying is buy now ,get later(don't forget to cross fingers too) .hmm if this is considered evolution then i am stuck in my old ways yes.
I am shocked you are shocked that people expect a product to have substance to it.
I don't think anyone even shouted for an expansion this year anyhow ,so if they needed more time to create the zones and lore and add it to the features then great doubt many will complain.
But to simply add features and tell you don't worry zones will come .
Hey aslan , sent me $200000 and i will sent you a picture of the parking lot to the apartment i promise to come with the house.Don't worry i will sent you a picture every month of each room of the house at a time.
Sounds good eh.
Also how short are people's memory.Fan faire just last year was a promise to keep expanding velious post DoV launch to be biggest expansion ever free of charge.So considering they said all new content will be velious part 2 then by that promise(broken now of course) it was meant to be free.
Unless you know of any new zones promised which is non velious ?
No matter how you paint it you can easily see from offical forums,eq2 flames etc that this expansion is heavily critized and SoE can ill afford to annoy its customers so close to the game you claim will fail .
dang double postage! :P lol
What Leucent said. Basically you have lots of new game features which are quite complex (full new class, help with making groups by mercenaries, option to build new dungeons and play through player build dungeons, tradeskill apprentice to help with crafting and discover new recipes, reforging of equipment to modify its stats and adding particle effects, more AA).
That seems quite a lot to me. If you are not interested in it despite the broad are of topics that is covered - nobody forces you to buy it, not sure why you complain. Enjoy the free stuff and be done with it? And you can buy the expansion for $39.99 in preorder, collectors for $59.99. That looks reasonable to me as well. *shrug*
Played: Pretty much any fantasy MMO, some did not even make it to release ...
Favorites: UO, EQ2, Vanguard, Wurm Online, Salem, ESO, Creativerse
Playing: ESO, Creativerse, Guild Wars 2
Anticipating: (sigh) ... maybe Ashes of Creation
I only partially get the complaints. To those complaining this is only features and no contents, I say this... Desert of Flames had content... There. I already know for a fact that this expansion will be 100x better than DoF.
Also, why should they include zones and stuff in this expansion, when they are already working on numerous zones for free. Would you be happier if they just included the accompanying content updates with the expansion? What's the difference?
Naysayers will be... well naysayers. First off, thats an L not an i, im not asian :P Second, i didnt quote anyone in my post because i wasnt talking about any one particular person. It was a generalization of the type of person that makes those same disparaging remarks. The type of person that leaves one MMO to go to another every time a new one is released. Like i said they will play SWTOR for about 6 months or so, them move onto whatever the next MMO that hits comes out. Ive played EQ2 since launch in 04, and there isnt another game released to date that can match it in terms of gameplay options and content.
So yes, some people feel that there isnt enough to warrant the price. Thats great, everyone has thier opinion, and I have mine. I raid hardcore, have since the beginning, and yes, as a raider there isnt anything being offered for that playstyle. Thems the breaks. I personnaly am looking forward to mercs (so i dont have to box all my alts, i just hire a merc), Tradeskill Assnts. I have a lvl 90 of every tradeskill and I love that theres something new and original to EQ2 crafting. Im totally rolling a BL to add to my army of alts, because well...they are awsome. Reforging can technically help raiders, since it does allow you to not just add particle effects to equipment but move around stats as well, and of course theres the 20 AA. Yes thats not alot, but to a raider, every point counts. If you choose not to get it, you will be outdone by those that do. Sorry.
Now a post or two up, someone mentioned that the zones we already promised free last year, so they arent doing us any favors there....well all i can say to that is DUH. Thats exactly why this expansion is only features and not zones. Because the zones were already planned to be offered for free. See how that works? They already said the reason these features are being introduced as an expansion like this is because they wanted to give us something more than the zones that were already planned from the start. Could they have just not added any new features and not had any expansion at all. Of course they could have. Me, im glad im getting more than just some zones over the next year or two. If you dont want the features dont buy the expansion. Its totally up to you. I have already preordered the CE myself. And 60 bucks is totally worth a new class, new AA, mercs, reforging, DYOD, and TS Assnts.
Hehe good luck with that, having participated in the beta of SW:TOR I can happily say the longer I tested the less I wanted to play it, in the end my last testing survey I checked the "wont be buying it box" and called it quits.
It is a polished game, runs well, no crashes, quests do what they say and the voice overs are well voice overs I can not fault it except that it is about as interesting as watching grass grow.
I have never enjoyed being lead through a game following a preset path which is SW:TOR, I like to explore and make my own way which sadly SW:TOR isn't.
As for this "expansion" I really don't know how I feel about it, part of me says this should have been a $10 Adventure Pack as I am not used to buying game mechanics I am more used to buying content.
In the end i will have purchased it and we will see how it works out.