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EverQuest II: Kingdom of the Sky First Look
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
Mike Jobbagy recently took a tour of "Kingdom of the Sky", the upcoming expansion pack for EverQuest II. Based on what he saw, he filed this first look report.
;) Ryan took this moment to reiterate one of the new features, the level increases for Adventurers, Artisans and Guilds. Along with the new levels, it also brings all new items, including equipment, furniture, guild rewards, and for the Carpenters out there, a lot of new level 60+ furniture, including some rares. He explained that not all expansions will necessarily include a level cap increase, but they felt that the content in Kingdom of Sky justified one. After all, these isles are thought to have bled into this world from the fabled Plane of Sky, not to mention there are Dragons here.
We next visited one of the zones accessible from Tenebrous Tangle, called the Sanctum of the Scaleborn. Its a zone intended for groups levels 62-67. The dark stone corridors and holy rooms are filled with Wraiths, Droags, Silent Sentinels, and other creatures. We explored the Oratorium and the Audience Chamber, where an unfriendly Dragon could be found, if one knew how to look. There is also a raid version of the zone called the Temple of Scale, which is home to the high priestess of the Awakened named Harla Dar. |
You can view the entire article here.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
Every screenshot until this point has made me go, "OOH! Pretty!" But that image of cloud surfing is so bad it almost hurts, and it looks like they just pulled it straight out of Planetside Core Combat. Instead of empire-specific 'energy floofs' on the ziplines, we've got... fluffy little cloud transport?
It looks ridiculous... while the rest of the expansion looks like amazing beyond belief.
Good preview overall, thankyou for taking the time.
Was hoping to get some more info on the AP system going in, was only really a teaser in your preview. Of course, you can only describe what you saw.
I'm just interested(worried) to know whether:
a) the expansion will be a must-buy at ANY level, because without the APs you will be at a serious loss in PvE and predominantly PvP (which is sounds like you will be).
b) will the APs buff characters to the point that content will be trivial to them, yet very hard to non AP people, meaning that content will need to be made really hard, thus impossible for the non APers?
b2) and if so, will the AP system get nerfed over time (as SoE has a history of doing with classes in EQ2) to bring it 'down' to a point where non APers can still compete?
Oh, and Mike, did you get any info on the PvP system while you were there too please mate?
Thanks again for the good insight, looks like there will be plenty of content (and bugs
) to contend with.
"(The) Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude." - George W Bush.
Oh. My. God.
For my Self this is going to be a must buy i make a business in the world of Norath as being a Sage and a Adventure so i do a lot of everything including High end Raids with my guild and friends and doing Quests to have fun EQ2 challenge's you on a hole Different lvl i have played many a MMO's and the Ever quest line just keeps getting better and better and there is more to KoS then high end Raids and quests its got a nice balance to it all there are things added in the game for all lvl's with this expansion and with the new update of LU#19 it made the game a little easier on people that arent Hardcore MMO which is cool to but anyways i love this expansion and everything it brings to the table
GL all <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Shill FTW!
Thanks for your excellent comments and concerns. You are correct when you say I can only describe what I saw. Achievements were not implimented in the beta yet, we were given a few AP to mess around with. We wern't given much more information other than what I reported, Blackguard said more info would be found in interviews and articles in the upcoming days before release. I can address a couple of your concerns, but not all.
A> Concerning the expansion being a must buy in regards to Achievement Points, the answer is no! AP will be one of the few new things added that will be available to ALL players in EQ2, like the Guild Vault system was made available to all with DoF. You will not be able to aquire AP until level 20. And only level appropriate actions will gain AP, meaning no farming grey bosses or below level quests.
B's> The new abilities that I saw were not really anything uber or content killing. They are kind of like the Master Strikes we get, they are strong yes, but not overly so. They enhance or add a different spell or abilty in a different direction. And tweaking and nerfing is pretty much to be expected. It's what the beta is all about, and once on the live servers we all know we see many 'unforseen' things occur that will have to be addressed.
Regarding PvP.... it's a totally different issue, different servers etc, for another article. I'm not much of a PvPer in mmorpg's. I did all my PvP in FPS games. I was big into the Quakes, Tribes, Unreals, etc. To me, THAT'S PvP, I haven't seen anything in any mmorpg to come close to that, and they really shouldn't. So I wouldn't be one to review the PvP.
I have been in there a little bit, and can share my introduction to EQ2 PvP with ya without breaking any nda's on it in one sentence. Got ganked at the beta buffer. With PvP it's all about who can find and utilize the exploits first and fastest. Even in the beta, testers(?) will exploit. I know, betas are there to find holes and exploits before live. But this was the buffer npc that you need to get buffed up past level 1 so you can actually test, and the issue won't even be in live, because there will be no buffer npc. Pretty funny, ganking level one testers.... well, you die and learn in PvP. We learned to get around that until SOE moved buffers to less accessable to enemy locations. Other than that, it's kill or be killed, as to be expected.
Glad you enjoyed the article, more information will be forthcoming, and the Review will have more specifics than the Preview.
Really? So just to clarify, are you saying that AP will be akin to PvP, in that it will be available to everyone even if they do not own KoS (because that's what it sounds like you are trying to say)?
Somehow I doubt I'm reading that right, as it would eliminate the need for anyone to really purchase KoS until they reached the level it's content is geared toward (high-end).
Sorry to be so misleading on that issue. I just got confirmation from Blackguard that you do have to purchase KoS to be able to use the Achievement Point system. it is indeed one of the carrots they using to get more people to buy the xpac before they are of a high enough level to adventure there. The way it was put to me during the tour was anyone level 20 or above can use the AP system. The minor detail is that yes, you do have to buy the expansion.