By now we’ve all heard that Beastlords will indeed be the 25th class added to EQ2. I’m not really surprised but I am curious as to HOW they managed to get to Norrath since we have no Luclin. Perhaps they took a space ship. Other news we heard:
- Authenticators are coming, keychain versions as well as Andriod/iOS
- Player-made dungeons are in the works (very excited about this feature)
- No level cap increase in the next expansion – aa only (just like DoV, a little sad that I have to go so long at level 90)
- Mercenaries are coming (Just like EQ1 already has) turning EQ2 into much more of a single player game (mixed feelings on this)
- Tradeskill apprentices are coming, they use a new craft table and can make new items
- Reforging is coming (a la WoW)
The expansion is slated to go live in November of this year, which is a pleasant surprise to me since I was expecting it to go live in February (which is when DoV released). I’m very excited about player-made dungeons as there is SUCH creativity in EQ2. I think it will be a really neat thing to see. I’m also excited about the EQ1 expansion, and of course I was not surprised that again this year there was absolutely 0 information on Vanguard. In fact I don’t even think they mentioned it once.
What do you think about the announcements we’ve heard so far? Excited about any of them? It will be interesting to see what other details come out of Fan Faire as the day progresses, and in the mean time, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.
@VGM: Smokejumper said that a few weeks ago, fully aware that he was about to announce an expansion that is much heavier on features than content. In fact, the more I read, the less clear I am on what actually comes with this expansion. The Dungeon-builder is apparently in the August game update. The Freeport revamp is included for everyone since it replaces the existing city. So basically it’s $40 (unless the price gets lowered) for Beastlords, mercenaries (inc the crafting version) and an increased AA cap.
I could be wrong, and it has been know, but in regards to the lack of talk of content in the next expansion – did they not say earlier this year that future expansions will focus of adding features whilst the release of content for EQ2 players will come in the form of free quarterly updates. This could be the start of that.
I thought it was weird that they talked nothing of content. Is this Velious part 2? What zones will we see? Sure, there is a new class and some new features, but what about new places to visit? This is quite strange for SOE. It is also suspicious that the new expansion will be coming out this year, which makes two in one year, after taking 13+ months to make the previous one.
As for Planetside, I found it to be a little underwhelming. Smed built up the hype around this great new engine, showed a beautiful picture from EQ Next using it, then showed Planetside using the engine while looking like anything other FPS on the market. I also thought it was odd that they kept referencing other games by other publishers when describing it; Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Eve Online were mentioned. The logo also reminded me of Mass Effect quite a bit, especially on the guy’s shirt (the 2 looked similar to N7).
I’m very confused about EQ Next. It looks great in some screenshots and the concept art is interesting, but it is using the same engine as Planetside. I think they made a mistake to even acknowledge it last year, which made this year’s keynote a little disappointing. I also thought the presentation of the event was kind of rushed and did not flow very well. Smed was just using a PowerPoint and was having trouble using it properly (slides moving ahead before he was ready). The presentation about the authenticators was very confusing and I seriously had no idea what he was talking about until reading your post which mentioned it. It was painful to sit through the dwarf (cosplay) lady’s talk. Overall, I kind of regret even sitting through the whole thing.
I’m trying to withhold judgement until the rest of the FF details come out, but my initial impression is underwhelmed. Tacking on AA makes it a mandatory purchase, but the lack of discussion about content makes me suspicious that we’re going to be charged a full expansion price for half an expansion (features, without much new content, even compared to recent already-thin expansions). If they were going to add several new zones, that would have made the feature list, and the lack of several zones is why they couldn’t raise the level cap.
As to Mercenaries, I don’t see that as a strongly solo thing, because you don’t really need a second warm body for leveling or daily quests anyway. Maybe a level 90 with a merc will be able to solo the level 80 portions of the required epic weapon line, but those abilities are so class defining that it is increasingly unreasonable to hold players hostage to their ability to get a group for content that will be four expansions old by the time this thing hits the live servers. I’m somewhat concerned that my bard will no longer be able to find PUG’s when guild groups can just take an NPC to fill the last slot – especially if bards and enchanters are included as merc options (which I will concede probably should happen) – but perhaps it will be easier to form groups if you’re reasonably sure you won’t bottleneck at a LF1M .
It all sounded pretty good to me. UGC I like, Mercs I like, new class I like…
Of course I’m not that emotionally invested in EQ2 so I’m probably easy to please there.
Planetfall 2 is pretty exciting… Planetfall was fun but our internet connections weren’t as awesome back then and lag could be an issue.
Was a little disappointed that for the 2nd Fan Faire in a row Everquest Next just got an “It’s coming.”