Everquest Next

quoted by "Wikedjug" on the Cosa Nostra Forums



 Lead designer Darrin on EQ Next:

WORLD

-Seamless world - no zones

-The land mass shown was not Antonica, it was just a land mass. I asked if Kelethin existed and he shrugged as if he could not answer. BUT IF THEY HAVE CRUSHBONE (concept art) THEY MUST HAVE KELETHIN RIGHT?!

- I asked about the limitations I had read about with the Light Forge engine in regards to water (rivers) and square-ish maps, his response was that it was a heavily modified version so there will be fluids in the game.

- No oceans, 'yet'.

- There will not be 2 factions (ie alliance/horde), or 2 sides (evil/good).

CHARACTERS

- There will be 8 starting classes, the one you pick you basically get for free. The other classes you will be able collect. I am assuming these 8 will be a part of the 40 planned classes (more of which will be shown tomorrow in the classes panel). Their plan is to release new classes as the years progress. It was also mentioned that some classes will be extremely hard to obtain.

- No levels - referred to as `tiers', the 'zones' will be tiered with certain level mobs and usually will be higher tiered the deeper you go in that specific area. In order to tier up you will have to complete certain objectives; one example given is say completing a specific set of armor would tier you up.

- 8 max total abilities at any given time. 4 per weapon, and 4 per class. He mentioned something about all 8 being from weapons if you were say duel wielding, but I may have misunderstood him here.

- There is NO XP from mob killing, no grinding, etc etc. Essentially what we're looking at is a set of objectives and how we go about completing those objectives will be up to us. It was said that one may be able to tier up without even having to fight.

- RANGERS ARE A CONFIRMED CLASS

- Cannot progress both a paladin and a shadow knight at the same time. Basically you have to do bad things to get friendly with the SK people so you can up the SK skills, but you have to do good things to get in nice with the paladin folks to get trained in paladin things. You can however, do bad things and get the SK class, then redeem yourself and get the paladin class, but in doing so you may no longer be able to talk to the SK people and continue your progression with that class.

- I asked about death; they cannot talk about death. All he said was "it's cool and we think you'll like it".

ITEMS

- All items will be bind on equip (or pickup, not sure). He said that he loved the idea of non-bind weapons but they ruin the economy.

- The game will be heavily based on gear, he loves gear and loves the hunt for gear. One example he gave us is say you were a Rogue that wanted to get the wizard's teleport spell well once you obtain the teleport spell and use it, you most likely would not have enough stamina/mana/whatever to do your backstab, so you would want to gear that class specifically for this task by obtaining a weapon that returned stamina/mana/whatever on teleport.

- Crafted items and dropped items (say from raids) will be of equal value many times. This is all dependent on the class, spec, etc though. He basically said there is a big emphasis on crafting and they want their goods to be competitive.

COMBAT

- NO AUTO ATTACK, I asked if was similar to NW's combat system and he said it was similar, but more advanced.

- The demo shown was more of a `tech demo' for the destructible environment. None of the NPCs were even pathing (the small ones were not even attacking back).
BOWS are in the game (more on that tomorrow apparently).

MISC

- I asked if there was a large majority of the game that they were not showing us (maybe due to lack of polish etc etc) and he said yes.

- Crafting was compared to SWG, but better

- There are currently 70-90 devs (don't remember the exact number) on the dev team for EQN.


The people making EQNext had nothing to do with EQOA or what happened to it so holding a grudge is silly if the game is stellar, which it looks stellar right now early on.

What is NW's combat system?

Wow no XPin or grinding damn RIP old EQ/EQOA did he ask if  there is training/ksin raids where guilds can do it or can whole server join in and everyone gets loot? Any instances/dungeons? PVP/Dueling? Epic quest/Lycans are their still roles like healer/tank/battery etc The Warrior never taunted.

No roles, no tanks

They said it's because the AI is so smart

 



EverQuest Next Previews: The Future of the MMORPG Lies in Norrath

Today, right now in Las Vegas, Nevada SOE is pulling back the veil on the incredibly anticipated EverQuest Next. In the this momentous installment of the venerable series, they're returning to their roots and pushing a genre to its limits. Read on for our exclusive preview of what awaits you in the new Norrath.

By William Murphy on August 02, 2013

It seems like ages ago, but way back at E3 2013 in June, we here at MMORPG.com were one of a very few select press outlets to step behind closed doors at the SOE booth and be treated to an early look at EverQuest Next. Director of Development Dave Georgeson let us through an in-depth look at the game’s systems complete with video clips, artwork, and of course everyone’s favorite: presentation slides!  Right now, as you’re reading this the game is being revealed in Las Vegas, Nevada to just about the entire globe.  Finally, after all these months of teasing and hyping, the gaming public is getting their own eyes on with SOE’s evolutionary MMORPG.  But let’s go back to June 11th, 2013... the moment we first learned just what SOE has in store for the genre, and why if their aspirations can be met we’ll all be in for a treat when Norrath is made anew once more.


At the E3 presentation, Dave began by letting us know that the team had some original plans for EverQuest Next that poised the game as more of a successor to EverQuest 2. However, everyone at the company felt like they were making the same game over and over.  Hell, they felt the industry has been making the same game over and over.  A new idea was formed, a new direction for the EverQuest franchise, and the top brass gave Dave and his team the go-ahead to take EverQuest Next and make it the game they want to make rather than just another MMORPG.  
During the presentation, we saw bits and pieces of footage from the early builds of the game, artwork, renders... the whole nine yards.  But the key to EverQuest Next is in the details and those we have plenty of to share.

Movement and Combat
Two of the key ingredients in any MMO, right? Just like everything else in EQN (which we’ll get to) SOE is seeing fit to alter the way we interact with the world, starting with our characters movement and physical prowess.  On the movement side of things, players characters will have smart movement... I know that sounds anticlimactic.  But imagine the running and jumping and climbing of something like Mirror’s Edge, applied to an MMO and in the third person.  You run up to a waist-high ledge, and instead of having to spacebar over it, you’ll just vault it naturally.  You will be able to jump against a wall and then spring off it, run up it, and so forth.  Norrath is getting all parkour.



Then there’s the combat itself.  SOE’s going somewhere between traditional tab-targeting and the action-combat of TERA with EQNext.  You’ll have a limited amount of icons on your hotbar as is the current trend. The team doesn’t want you playing your UI, they want you playing the game.  You’ll also be fighting with a mix of skills from your weapons and your chosen class (we’ll get to how you can mix and match classes a bit later).  The weapons also work differently for each class.  You might have a spear, and on your Ranger, maybe it’s more of a poking and prodding sort of weapon letting you weave and dodge in and out of combat.  But maybe you’re a warrior instead, and the spear then becomes a method of controlling your enemy.  You can lunge it into them, hoist them above you, and drop them behind you in a spear-suplex sort of maneuver.  Oh, and there will be guns, suggesting some elements of industrialism in this Norrath too. Frankly, the whole thing sounds a bit like ArenaNet's take on combat, and while I'm okay with this I know others might not be.  But let's be clear here: EQN will sport the trinity and traditional class roles. Healers, Support, Crowd Control, DPS, Tanks, rejoice!
Now, with that I think it’s time we talk about the four main pillars that EQN will be built upon, beginning with destructibility.

Destructible Everything
This is very important: everything in the new Norrath will be destructible... everything. We talked about combat above, but let’s keep going a bit more.  You’re fighting a bunch of orcs with some guildmates, and they’re just rushing you too much.  There are too many of them to take on at once.  Your Mage then saves the day with a nice giant wall of rock pulled from the ground itself. Not just some animation, but quite literally pulled from the ground itself.  If there’s rock underfoot, you’ll be able to use that to your combat advantage.  You keep fighting the orcs, taking them out one by one, but as you do they break down the wall and now you’re outnumbered again.  Luckily, one of your Wizard friends brought a nuke.  He tosses the sucker into the thrall of orcs, blowing some of them up but more importantly... he’s blown a hole in the ground beneath the orcs and the survivors have fallen in.  Your Archer and Mage step up to the ledge of the deathtrap and rain fire and arrows down upon them, securing your victory.


But destructibility doesn’t just tie into combat, or random vandalism in towns (don’t be that guy, folks).  Nope, it ties into something else all together – exploration.

Thousands of Years of History Beneath your Feet... and Above
So let’s go back up to that combat scenario. You’ve blown a hole in the ground... great! Now, I don’t expect SOE to say that every time a player uses a spell a hole will be blown into the ground and it’ll stay there forever.  But this time?  This time the spell your wizard used will have unearthed a brand new set of ruins to explore.  In fact, one of the key ingredients to EQN’s world design this time around is verticality.  Not just into the air with mountains and such, but also down into the ground where old civilizations slumber.  So that nuke you carelessly tossed opened up a brand new place for all players to explore.  In fact, Dave told us that the world of Norrath goes multiple levels into the ground.  You might delve into this newly found dungeon, and accidentally step on a crack that opens yet another region to explore below.  On top of that, like so many gamers, the EQN guys are sick of repeating the same content over and over again.  So while you will be able to delve into a subterranean layer multiple times, it will also be procedurally generated to make sure that it’s not the same each time.  That same sense of exploration extends to the skies as well, as EverQuest Next aims to give us a Norrath with more to see and do than any other version.
You can destroy terrain, smash walls, blow up bridges, dig a hole in the ground that opens up into a cavern system that turns into a dungeon. You can even dig in that cavern and possible find even deeper caverns. We asked about what happens when a player, or players, decide to take a prairie and turn it into a crater field that looks like the surface of the moon. I was told that certain areas would regenerate over time. Some would happen slowly, some would happen within minutes. Also if a certain area was too important to the world they could make it immune to vandalism.



But uncovering the dungeons isn’t the only way the world will change based on your actions.  When EverQuest Next launches, every server will be a clean slate with exactly how SOE wants the world to begin.  But every single thing the players do, the decisions they make, and the way they progress the story will alter each server individually. SOE calls the mechanism by which this change is accomplished a “Rallying Call” and it introduces an idea that is brand new to MMOs, permanent change.

A World That Can Change Permanently 
So, let’s explore the idea of permanent change in more detail. Rallying Calls are giant public quests that can take upwards of two to three months to complete. There will be steps to complete in the story arc in shorter intervals but the overall arc will take months. One of the earliest examples will be to build a city. As a crafter you can help gather materials and create items that the city would need to grow. As an adventurer you can explore the surroundings and make sure the area is free of hostile wildlife. The city could eventually require a quarry to be built so the walls could be upgraded to stone from wooden palisades. While the city is digging deeper in the quarry it could uncover a hidden lair of monsters. These monsters could then gather an army to support them launching a counter offensive on the city. The players would then be required to help squash this offensive. Once the enemy army was subdued and the city was final the Rallying Call would come to an end. Events like this will shape the face of Norrath.


One server might have the Orcs running Qeynos with an iron fist.  But then your next server might not get to that stage so quickly.  You might find one dungeon open on one server, but undiscovered on the next.  You can start a character on day one, and then roll an alt a year later and have the experience be completely different because the world will never be the same as it was that first day.  Stories of how the world is shaped and where the story goes will change from server to server.  And of course, you can only imagine how cool it will be to one day see SOE announce a brand new server launching... so you can do it all over again differently. The world of EverQuest Next will truly be shaped by its players, and it will be different from day to day, month to month, and year to year.The world and the story of each server won’t be the only things that are changed based on players’ actions.  On a more personal level, every one of us will living a life that has its own ups and downs based on our decisions.

A Life of Consequence and Multi-Classing
You’ll begin your life in EverQuest Next with one of handful of classes.  That’s it... at least until you discover the others. There are no levels in EQN, all of your progression will come from exploring the world, unlocking classes and experimenting with weapons and spells.  That’s right folks, EQN is bringing back the glory of exploration for purpose in that it’s going to actually ask you to, well, you know explore the world to unlock things. In the example Dave gave us, an adventurer comes upon a farmer who’s being besieged by legions of orcs.  He begs you for help. Or, if you prefer, you can help the orcs take control of the farm and do away with the farmer.  If you help the poor guy out, maybe you’ll find out he’s actually a hedge Wizard and will teach you the art of magic.  Or perhaps you help out the orcs instead (because orcs are awesome, that’s why) and they’re so impressed with your combat prowess that they’ll teach you how to become a mighty warrior.  There won’t be some golden exclamation point over the farmer’s head, and it won’t be clear from the get go how this whole experience would go down or what your rewards would be.  And what’s more is that once you do it, it won’t be there for the next person. That’s not to say that others couldn’t learn wizardry or the art of war, but rather this will be EQN’s way of combating guides that lay out exactly how to find and do everything in the game.  Dave and his team want to make sure that the sense of wonder, exploration, and accomplishment are put back into the MMORPG.
Oh, and did we mention that EverQuest Next will sport multi-classing?  You’ll be able to mix and match skills and abilities from a bevy of the game’s several dozen classes, making your ultimate adventurer a possibility.  Wizard + Rogue strike your fancy?  Do it up. Want to play a warrior who can also casts spells?  Sure, why not? Dave couldn’t comment much on the classes EQN would host, but chances are we’ll be finding out more on classes as you’re reading this.  When I asked if they were worried about balance and how it’ll be obtained with all of these combinations and the many different weapon skills, the team just smiled and said, “We’re not worried about balance. We’re worried about fun.”



In the beginning you will be able to choose between 8 classes that have four distinct core abilities. The available races that we can confirm so far are Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Dark Elves, Ogres and Kerra. As you adventure throughout the world Dave mentioned that you will be able to learn up to tens of other classes (Dave stopped after he counted by ten to forty, but who knows how many there will be?). You can then take the abilities that you learn from these classes and mix and match them to suit your desires. Weapons also have their own unique abilities. As you collect weapons and classes you will be able to further individualize the way that you play the game. On the surface this sounds great. They will however need to find a way to prevent players from feeling pressured to playing a role a certain way if they want players to really maintain a sense of individuality. 
But let’s get back to that “orcs versus farmer” example for a bit to talk about another one of EQN’s main themes: Artificial Intelligence that reacts to the players.

Emergent AI - Where Storybricks Comes In
This is the part of EQN that studio Storybricks is helping out on. Those orcs that sacked the farmer’s livelihood have been encroaching closer and closer to Qeynos proper.  They’re thinking of setting up an ambush a few miles from the city gates, because it’s really quite easy to attack and rob travelers when guards are far away. If enough players alert the guards, perhaps they’ll actually step out from behind the high-walled gates and do something about it. Or if players take it upon themselves, they can start mounting an offensive against the orcs, beat them to a pulp enough to make them pack up and move.  No more static spawns, always just milling about no matter how many of their brethren you kill.  The mobs and NPCs of EQN will act and react to the actions of each other and the players.  Villages will get abandoned, gnolls will rove about in bands, wildlife will migrate.  Finally, an MMO’s world will actually react to its inhabitants.  And it’s about time too.



With that, our little taste of what we’re getting a full five-course meal of during SOE Live wound down towards its end.  But not before Dave and crew could drop a tiny bit of information on crafting, and just exactly how EQN’s sandbox will toss us all shovels, buckets, and tell us to go build and play.

EverQuest Next 'Landmark' Launching this Winter
Maybe you’ve seen Player Studio already in place with EverQuest, FreeRealms, and now Planetside 2. PS gives each game’s players some control over the content that appears in their game by allowing them to actually craft that content. EQN will be taking Player Studio one step further, by launching EverQuest Landmark this Winter. A wildly ambitious, creative, and sprawling predecessor to the actual EverQuest Next MMORPG, Landmark will essentially be like Minecraft in EverQuest form. SOE is giving us all the same tools they use to make buildings, land, and so much more and let us play with them and build stuff on SOE-hosted servers.
While they keep working on the full MMORPG version of the game, they’ll keep adding more tools and features to Landmark to see how we’ll use them.  Content we create may even be added into Player Studio or EQN proper, and we’ll of course share in the proceeds from anything sold on Player Studio. PS will be a big part of EQN’s overall strategy, because like Tramell Isaac said recently about its addition to Planetside: it’s about building community.  And there’s really no better way to do so than to allow players to make things within the world and share it with each other. 



Landmark is going to be the biggest and most beautifully rendered version of LEGO you’ve ever seen. There are voxels for everything from mud to snow and iron and everything in between. Each one reacts to what it’s placed next to, as well. Snow will shift and change shape if it’s placed next to a stone. Water will fill a space its laid into, or lie flat on a surface as a puddle.  The example we were shown had rather large blocks (think Cube World), but only as a way to showcase the tech. The visual fidelity of EQN will be a stylistic and artistic take on Norrath, but the visual effects will be stunning, taking full advantage of the f Forgelight Engine as it’s also used on Planetside 2 (EQN will also use Forgelight).  
On each Landmark server, one continent of the world will be reserved for Norrath itself, and each region will have specific landscapes (lava, winter, jungle, etc).  The way Dave explained it, this will be like and the ultimate sandbox for players.  They can each build stuff in Norrath, and see who can do what better. Who knows, maybe something you make in the style of Antonica will be there when launch arrives.  The rest of each world will be like the Wild West of America. You’ll take your avatar and run out into the wild and claim a plot of land to begin building. At first Landmark will be all about the buildings and the scenery.  
As the development of EQN progresses, more and more features may be added. It’s not only a great way to get involved in the development of EverQuest Next if you’re a devoted fan or creative type, but it’s also shaping up to be a very addictive sandbox to play in while you wait for SOE’s own take on the subject matter. And you just might make some money on an awesome weapon you make if it gets sold in Player Studio later on. They're even going to tell you what they want help building and experimenting with as Landmark progresses.  EQN Landmark may just be the largest and most insane collaborative project between developers and players, and the beauty of it all is that it will be entirely free for players starting this Winter.



As for actual crafting in EQN, we’ll have to wait and see what SOE Live holds for that, but as far as I’m concerned Landmark is the purest form of crafting. Players will make buildings, towns, wells, cities, everything from the ground up.  The only thing that we’re not going to have control of in Landmark seems to be the mobs themselves (probably because the world doesn’t need anymore phallic-shaped enemies, I’d wager). But maybe you're sick of hearing about player-created this or that?  Fear not. There will be an entire world of content, zones, dungeons, and so much more all crafted by SOE for the full launch of EverQuest Next. Landmark is just icing on the cake, and the player's way to "leave their mark on the land" or Norrath in EQN.  And this is all just the tip of the iceberg. Right now, as you read this, the presentations on everything EQN are ongoing in Las Vegas. Rob, Suzie, and Garrett are all delving deep into the classes, races, combat, crafting, lore, and much more.  But what do you think so far? Is this what you expected of EverQuest Next? Is it more? Let us know in the comments!




Bill Murphy / Bill Murphy is the Managing Editor of MMORPG.com, RTSGuru.com, and lover of all things gaming. He's been playing and writing about MMOs and geekery since 2002, and you can harass him and his views on Twitter @thebillmurphy.

Ten Hidden EverQuest Next Videos in EQ Worlds App



Our amazing forum community has been dissecting EverQuest Next news all day.  User Mikeki7 stumbled upon four brief hidden videos in the recently released EverQuest Worlds mobile application.  You can check out the thread in our EQNexus forums, and see all four videos, including another look at the Kobold, after the break.



UPDATE: It turns out there are 10 (and potentially more) videos hidden in the quests currently loaded on the app.  You can read more about how to unlock them all in our forums and see them all after the break.

 






















MORE HERE

Wow! I think they got a kool game/ideas, but they changed it too much! imo I'm disappointed honestly FF14 ARR is more EQ than EQNEXT

I'm going to make you eat those words lol

I like it a lot, but it's just not EQ anymore. It seems like a really kool game though!

EQN reveals a few classes and races...
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/05/everquest-next-classes-and-races-revealed

EverQuest Next Class Interview with Producer Terry Michaels
Submitted by Sardu on Mon, 08/05/2013 - 00:34

Immediately following the worldwide reveal for EverQuest Next and Landmark (I’m not kidding – we literally went straight from the reveal into a private meeting room to talk to the EQN teams) we had the opportunity to sit down with Terry Michaels and Dave Georgeson to drill down into the class system for EQNext. In the first of these interviews, we discussed some of the initial reactions to the multi-class announcement, and the philosophy behind deciding to go that route for EverQuest Next in favor of a more traditional approach to MMO classes.

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Reuben, Arch Lich, EQHammer:  You quite literally just wrapped up the worldwide reveal for EverQuest Next and Landmark a few minutes ago which seemed to get an extremely positive response from the audience. I’m sure it must be great knowing that you’ve finally made it to this point, the curtain has dropped, and now legions of gamers have gotten to see what you’ve been up to.

Terry Michaels, Producer, EverQuest Next:  I was nervous about the reaction. We’re going off the reservation in so many ways that I didn’t know how our players were going to react to it. It could have been amazing, they could have absolutely hated it, or been disappointed because it’s not the game they thought that it was going to be. I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of the stuff that’s out there…

Reuben: You have multiple fan bases like the original EQ players; in fact one of our team members here has been playing since day one of that game and is still an active player today. Then I’m still an active EQII player and before that had played EQ for years and was in one of those guilds that spent about a year split between the two games before splitting off in one direction or the other.
Somewhere in between there, we’ve seen a lot of gamers following E3 that may not be active players today, but have a lot of nostalgia from the earlier days of the previous games. Especially with original EQ players, many are looking back now and remembering the strong attachment they had to the game, and what it evoked for them. We’ve seen countless cases of people hoping that EverQuest Next will be the MMO that finally brings some of that magic back to the industry.
And to be honest, I personally feel that MMOs have largely stagnated, and that the industry is in dire need of a kick in the pants.

Terry: We agree, and hopefully we’re supplying that kick.
Now that everyone has seen the games, what we’re trying to do is make sure that we always have something new for players to see. That’s really important to us. Yesterday you guys were shown more than anyone had seen before, and today there was something additional, and then when we go to gamescom we’ll have something new for people to see.

Reuben: I found the flow of the reveal very interesting; almost like you were peeling back layers of an onion. As each of those layers were peeled back, it was even more interesting to see the reaction from the audience.
The most interesting reaction – at least to me – was the announcement about the multi-classing system. That’s been heavily speculated and some hints were even given over the last couple of weeks in that direction, but a lot of our readers have been waiting to see if that’s really the case.
So with the reveal there was a mixed reaction, but as the system was explained a bit further people seemed to warm up to the concept, but there still seems to be some confusion as to what that part of the game is all about.

Terry: The way I would explain it, or the clarity for me on this is that it solves one of my biggest pet peeves about MMOs or even single-player RPGs. Most of those games ask you to make choices before you have any idea about what that choice means, and before you have any idea about what the impact of that choice is going to be long-term.
So what this is doing is creating a system that allows you to change your initial choice or change your idea of your character once you know more about the game, and more about what’s available. It’s putting that choice at the right point in time in a character’s career, and it’s giving players more options.
To me that’s the biggest thing about the multi-classing that we’re bringing here is we’re moving choices to the right place, and we’re making them meaningful so that you actually care about what you’re doing. But as far as progression inside of a class, we absolutely want to have and will have an extremely deep progression inside of that class. We want it to be a very focused class where it’s easy for you to understand what the core concepts behind that class are so that you can decide if you want to play it or not. But mastering it and getting it to its full potential is something that we want people to invest a significant amount of time into.

Reuben: So even within a core class, is that something that I’m still going to be able to evolve as I’m going out into the world? For example, RIFT has soul trees where you unlock them, and then it’s just a matter of leveling to gain points to spend in progressing within that tree. But you have a pretty linear path within the roots you have to follow to unlock anything in the branches.

Terry: It’s not easy to explain until you see it in action, but your class evolves every time you get another class, every time you get another character ability that you can theoretically put in there, because you’re not locked to just that classes abilities. Every time you get something, you can reevaluate what you’re doing and how you’re playing the game. Every single time you get something you can do that; you don’t have to, but the opportunity is there for every player to do that.
So even if you’re not getting something for a particular class, if you get something, all of the sudden now you might rethink how you’re interacting with the game, how you want to play, or what your play style is. So it’s much deeper than just expanding your class.

---

We’d like to thank Terry for taking some time to discuss the class system with us and provide a bit of clarity on what they’re hoping to address with multi-classing. We further those discussions and drill a bit deeper into the class system with our next interview with Dave Georgeson, so be on the lookout for that one to be hitting the site soon.

I’ll also be kicking off a new weekly column - Master Class - that I’ve been itching to do ever since first seeing the game at E3 now that I can begin openly discussing EverQuest Next and Landmark. Watch for more info and the first episode of the column early this week.

MORE HERE

EverQuest Next Classes Panel at SOE Live
Submitted by Sardu on Mon, 08/05/2013 - 11:03

Of the full day of EverQuest Next panels this weekend during SOE Live 2013, the most heavily attended of the bunch was on Classes. As you'll see in the video below, the SOE team dives quite a bit deeper into how the class system will work, and even gives some examples of specific classes such as the Blademaster, Rogue, Wizard, and Tempest. Also discussed are the different types of skills and how those will be slotted based on the class you're actively playing and progressing at the time.
If you're interested in how the whole multi-classing system will work in EQNext, you'll definitely want to check out the full Classes panel from SOE Live below!

EQN Landmark - Creating a World Panel at SOE Live
Submitted by Sardu on Mon, 08/05/2013 - 20:38

Continuing our series of videos from the full day of EverQuest Next panels this past weekend during SOE Live 2013, in the Creating a World panel, the fine folks from SOE share more details about the development process EverQuest Next and Landmark. For example, Rosie Rappaport turns back the clock to 2011 when the first concept art for EQNext was shown to the public, and discusses the iterative process over the past two years, while Jeff Butler dives deeper into the philosophy behind the new direction the games have taken since their first prototypes.
We recorded the full Creating a World panel which you can view below, and will also be rolling out the full panel on the Lore of EQNext for your viewing pleasure shortly.

Ronson so no levels and no grinding camps and no roles.

What did they say about open world PVE raids vs instanced? It is everyone on the server can join in or 1 guild at a time due to the ks factor? I highly doubt you will be able to ks and they will go the route of everyone gets loot or exp or gold etc. Also wonder about dueling and PVP.

None of that has been released yet. All they said was we'll love what they have in mind.

This is my take on the new land mass, although it changes each time I look at it (you know what to do, right click and view image)

 

Nice job! It looks perfect, but I doubt that EQN will go by EQOA EQ has all kinds of cities and zones that EQOA does not. I do not think they even call it Tunaria except in EQOA.

Overview
If I had to use a single word to describe EverQuest Next right now, it would have to be unprecedented. Unprecedented because they are promising to change the way we play the mainstream MMO. Between multiclassing, destructible environments, and the ability to dig through thousands of years of game in an archaeological sense they’ve certainly given us a lot to think about. Lets break down all of the information we have so far and leave it up to you to examine it. This posting will be updated as we have more information gathered. Check back!

The History


Heres a cliff-notes version of our 20,000 years of lore.
Keldarian Era

• Keldarian worship the four Seraphs
  

Lost Era

• Appropriately enough, nothing known about this.
  

Dal Era

• Elves rule for 2000 years, forming their empire.
  

Age of Ascension

• Elves figure out the spires, and begin to discover other races and planes of existance.
  

Age of Allies

• Elves and other races form bonds, create mixed society.
  
• Elves befriend dragons and are given the gift of magic.
  
• A peaceful era for a bit until…
  
• The elves meet the shissar.
  
• The shissar start a war between the elves and another race, then betray the elves.
  
• Other races aid the elves, who barely survive, and are able to push the shissar back to their home.
  
• Elves shut down the spires because of these events.
  

Takish Age

• The elves are paranoid, and their empire begins to divide.
  
• Koada’Dal movement begins, they begin subjugating other races with high magic (which the dragons fear)
  
• Dragons get angry, go back to velious. They cut ties with other races.
  
• The sundering occurs, destroying a spire and causing high magic to stop working.
  
• Takish empire falls into civil war.
  
• Civil war stops, but the empire is a shadow of its former glory.
  
• Takish empire left in ruins in what is now called Ashfang.
  
• Dragons come in and finish off whats left.
  
• Previously subjugated race form Combine Empire, who strike back at the dragons.
  
• The dragons are too powerful, forcing a retreat.
  
• Tier’Dal (an elite group of elves led by Keramor Thex) make one final stand at Bastion.
  
• The rest of the Combine flee to Kunark.
  

Age of Exile (Combine Era)

• The Combine arrive on Kunark, and run into Shissar.
  
• Shissar enslave combine, and have been enslaving the Iksar
  
• After 500 years of Combine slavery, the Iksar begin revolting.
  
• Shissar are overthrown.
  
• Both empires build their own societies.
  
• The Iksar are a broken race, and implement some Shissar like things into their society.
  
• Venril Sathir tries to re-enslave the Combine for their knowledge of magic.
  
• Combine do not want this, and decide to leave Kunark.
  

Age of Heroes

• Combine land back on their homeland, and form Qeynos.
  
• Everquest Next begins.
  

Source
The World

“The world of EverQuest Next is one of consequence.” That is a quote from the reveal. From what we know now the world comes in multiple forms of consequence. Firstly, the world seems to be infinitely destructible. You can blow bridges up and dig deep into the earth to underground caverns. You can also create walls via spells to block NPC movement. This leads to many exciting possibilities. Do you simply defeat all of the adds in the raid, or do you get creative and block them by destroying the bridge? The world heals though, they’ve said, and none of that change is permanent. Permanent change is left to Rallying Calls. These are giant public quests that can take months to complete, and will permanently affect the game world. Even better? The outcome can be different by server, making each server individual. Additionally, Storybricks comes into play here. The world is living, and each action you make affects it. The world will remember the way you’ve acted, and everyone will react to you accordingly.
Beyond this, mobs are more than static spawns. Every mob has at least one desire. They’re placed in the world and left to live out those desires. A bandit wants to rob travelers along a trade route, but doesn’t want to run into guards. He will find the most opportune spot and do this. So maybe players get sick of getting robbed, and begin fighting back. The bandit, if he lives, will react to this and change his tactics. He may find a new spot along a different trade route, or may call his buddies to become a thriving group of bandits, making it harder to fight back. Mobs will react during combat as well. They won’t simply beat on a tank while everyone else kills them; They’re going to want to win the fight, and will change their tactics accordingly.
The Character
Class System
Multiclassing. 40 Classes, 8 of which are starters. No trinity. Warrior, Wizard, Tempest, Rogue, Ranger, Blademaster named. There’s a lot to this class stuff, lets try to make a bit of sense out of it. Firstly, you have to understand that you start with 1 class. From there you gather the other 39. There is no limit to how many you can gather. You of course have abilities from these classes, which are classified as movement, offensive, defensive, and utility. Your class also determines what type of weapons and armor you can use. As you gather more classes, you gather more skills. Each class is ranked up individually. You can mix and match classes to a certain extent, building your character the way you want. Of course, it has been stated that each class can work independently of the multiclass system, allowing you to play a single class if that’s what you want.
You have 8 abilities at any given time, that’s it. Four come from your weapon, four from customize-able slots. As mentioned before, each ability is categorized, and there’s limitations to what you can put in a custom slot based on your class. For example, Class A has 2 offensive and 2 defensive slots. You can only slot offensive and defensive abilities that you have gained when this class is active. You can not slot a movement or utility skill in this example. Different classes will have different mixtures of slots.
Gear
Gear is far more than looks, and likely won’t have really any stats. Stats will be very powerful, and very hard to improve. Gear can have ability modifiers as well. Boots of Zephyr are mentioned in the reveal, stating that they give you the ability to glide. More than that, gear can reduce the cost of certain types of abilities. They’ve also said that a sword isn’t just a sword. For example, a dwarven long sword will be different than a Qeynosian long sword.
Races
So far we have confirmed Kobold, Elves (wood and dark, by lore), Dwarf, Kerran, Human, Ogre.
The Combat
Combat, from what we can gather thus far, is somewhat action based. It is more visceral and organic than standard hotkey combat. It has been stated that is their goal. Everyone will be responsible for themselves in this system, which in past games we’ve seen cause a collapse of group oriented play. The EQNext team has addressed this, stating that the AI will take care of that. You will have to work together to combat enemy’s tactics. They want you playing the game, they’ve said, not staring at refresh and buff timers. They also have said they’re not entirely abandoning roles, just taking a step back.
They have also stated there will be raid and group content. Those who want to be social in their MMO; do not fear!
The PVP
They’ve stated they are not releasing information about how PVP works yet. That hints to it being in, at least.
LANDMARK!

Landmark is going to be our first tangible introduction to the world of EQNext. We will receive this goody by the end of the year, winter being the exact time frame mentioned. Basically, EQNext Landmark is a world building program, set on a series of persistent world servers, that will allow us to stake claim to an area and build on it. You will have control of the area you claim, and have it all to yourself. If you choose, you can whitelist other players to allow them to build on your claim. Much like the obvious comparable game, Minecraft, you will build with different materials to create things. Unlike minecraft, you aren’t stuck with 1×1 blocks. You can change the block size, smooth things, and do a great number of cuts to your buildings to create very different effects and buildings. That’s not the cool stuff though, the cool stuff is that, along side the roundtable, they will be using EQNext Landmark to have the players help craft the world. They used the example of holding a contest to have people build a temple for them, that they will pick the best one of and put it in the game. It is your chance to make a permanent mark on the world of EQNext, before it even releases.
Beta
Beta signups are available at the official EQNext Website

In EQoA the mainland was called Tunaria, in EQ it's called Antonica, the new mainland is called Amaril.

Take a look @ this I put together, kind of puts things in perspective don't it?

 

Race	EQ	EQ2	EQoA	EQN
Ogre
Troll				No Trolls shown yet that I know of.
Kerran
Dark Elf
Elf
Human
Orc
Kobold
Dwarves

EQOA even gives EQ2 a run for their money

Landmark is kool but honestly its a way to cut cost and let the public be devs for the game lol

Ronson I must be losing my mind because I just saw a graph you made of the races released so far and now I cannot find it. (it said no trolls released yet) lol

scroll up lol

lol still can't find it. I went slow scrolling like 10x last night and 3x this morning. What post is it below. It vanished lol

It's right there man! You on your damn phone or something?

I can see it when page 1st loads then vanishes lol

EverQuest Next to Focus on PC First
Submitted by shayalyn on Monday August 12, 2013 - 13:37

Despite a heavy dose of speculation that EverQuest Next and EverQuest Next Landmark would launch for PS4 as soon as humanly possible (does that 4x4 ability control setup seem like a coincidence to you?), SOE is adamant that they will focus launch efforts on PC, first and foremost, waiting to dip their toe into the console waters. Here's what Eurogamer reported today:
The EverQuest Next development team may be focused entirely on the PC launch platform at present, but the ambitious MMO may eventually be released for the PlayStation 4, according to David Georgeson, producer for Sony Online Entertainment.
"We're very serious about this being a PC-orientated launch," Georgeson said at the SOE Live event in Las Vegas.
"Now, you're dumb not to explore other options with a business of this type, but we're very serious about developing for the PC. You know the company knows a lot about the PlayStation 4 - look at DC Universe Online and Planetside 2 - so we have a lot of people becoming extraordinarily knowledgeable with that box. We're not adverse to the idea, but we're not going down that path yet."
[Read more...]
Although SOE has had success with games like Planetside 2 and DC Universe Online on console, this news should gladden the hearts of EQ and EQ2 players, who tend to be PC gamers at heart. Are you happy with the PC-centered direction, or disappointed that you won't likely see EQNext on your PS4 at launch?

Loradio wrote:Mon, 08/12/2013 - 17:34
Yes.  Gaming is way better on a PC then a console, and I find the interactive tools harder to use on the console... its what made EQOA hell to play.

I know I remember how hard EQoA was my daughter started playing at 7 years old.............. is this dude serious lol

MORE HERE

Noobs and PC elitist... meh

Hard to play on ps2????? What was that guy smoking???

The EverQuest Next team is at Gamescom, and Director of Development Dave Georgeson is definitely earning his keep giving daily presentations to the masses over the din of the crowds. SOE is showing its Minecraft-like building game, Landmark, which Georgeson called a "gateway to EverQuest Next." Here's a brief glimpse at the new information we've gathered about this gateway drug:

• Players will begin as an Adventurer class
  
• Players can carry their character over into EverQuest Next at launch
  
• There will be quick travel between spires across ley lines
  
• There will be mounts
  
• There will be a wealth of social tools such as friends lists and guild structure
  

Check out yesterday's Landmark article to get the lowdown on everything we learned during the first Gamescom presentation. You can also get a look at the EverQuest Next Gamescom livestream schedule and check out some Landmark demo videos.
There will be a total of four presentations at Gamescom, livestreamed over Twitch TV by both the ESL and EverQuest Next Europe. If you miss the livestreams, you'll be able to view them on the EverQuest Next EU Twitch TV portal.

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Dave Georgeson on Monetizing, Multiclassing, Music and More
Submitted by shayalyn on Thursday August 22, 2013 - 16:21

EverQuest Next Europe interviewed Dave Georgeson (Director of Development) and Omeed Dariani (Global Brand Manager) during Gamescom. In part one of a three-part interview series they discussed both EQNext and Landmark as well as multiclassing and how the game will be monetized. We'll include the video below. And, for those who prefer reading, we've got a highlights transcript, too.
Dave: The truth is that we knew we had a good game. Like, we were really excited about it because we showed people in-house a bunch of times... and we got really enthusiastic responses. But no, we had no idea how big it would catch on. I mean, we hoped for it, but we didn't expect it, and it was fantastic.
Omeed: You can never know things like that, right? I mean, even Hollywood, when they make movies, they don't know if it's going to be a hundred-million dollars, or twenty-million dollars. It's really hard to guage the reaction until you start to see how it's going. And we couldn't be more happy with how it went.
Dave: We believed, because we're all industry vets. I've been making games for 25 years, and I'm not the only guy that's been making games that long on the team. So [we had] lots and lots of good ideas. But it's all, like, roll the dice and see what people feel like.
Dave: Right now we're running at what we call 'dog years,' which means that for every one day it's like seven days, it just goes on and on and on. The whole team is focused on creating... well, first we were getting the debut together, and now we're focused on making Landmark happen just almost overnight. And so, every day we go to work and things are changing. We've added all kind of different tools on the Landmark stuff. We've accelerated the technology so we can transmit the data a lot better than we used to. The character animations--the artwork and stuff like that--is progressing. Every day it's fun to go to work.
Omeed: Yeah, we had to change things for Gamescom. I mean, the presentation we're giving here is not the presentation we gave at SOE Live. We have new videos from Landmark, new announcements of classes and things like that.
Dave: Yeah, we're still holding stuff back, too. We have lots of stuff to reveal.
Dave: We have what I consider to be a world famous composer working with us. He's a friend of mine, I've worked with him on several projects, his name is Jeremy Soule.
Omeed: Absolutely world class.

"We're very much anti the whole idea of pay-to-win or pay-for-power, we're not into that kind of gaming."      - Dave Georgeson

Dave: He's absolutely fantastic. We all call him the John Williams of the game industry. And he actually does movie soundtracks and all kinds of stuff. He has a wonderful, high-tech, Hollywood sound facility. It's really fun to go up there. He hangs out with all of the big names and everything like that. But he's a really fantastic guy. He's one of those guys that thinks in terms of music like we all think in terms of words. He just sees music in his head. You can sit down and talk to him about a theme, or something like that, and he'll actually just start playing original compositions right there in front of you, on the fly. He's fantastic. And so the music and stuff that he's creating already, we debuted it at the show when we launched the whole concept out to the world, and players really really liked it.
Omeed: I think, so far we've seen on Reddit and social channels, that it reminds them of EverQuest. Not the actual music, but the feeling that you get from the music. I mean, people tear up when they hear it. And when you consider where it is in the product, that's an amazing thing to have already.
Dave: Yeah, it's really cool.
Dave: The model on this game is different than we've had on previous games, because we have the Player Studio backbone. So players can actually make stuff on their own, and when they make that available for other players to buy, those players can buy it from the [Marketplace], and then they make money and we split the revenue with them. So, that's a big difference from how we've done games in the past. This game is actually designed to embrace all that stuff and make everybody happy. And then we'll also do microtransactions and stuff, too. Like, we'll have some shortcuts and some appearance options and stuff like that, but we're very much anti the whole idea of pay-to-win or pay-for-power, we're not into that kind of gaming, and so we don't expect to do anything like that.
Omeed: Yeah, I think it's going to be amazing to see that player-created items are probably going to sell more than anything we create for EverQuest Next, and that's never happened before.
Dave: The whole thing about building the world with the players is... I think everybody's going to be happy.
Omeed: It is absolutely the most important thing, I think.
Dave: We have a very large dev team. And, like I mentioned before, they're an extremely experienced, very talented group of people. We can build this game on our own--in fact, that's what we're planning--but if the players work with us, if they want to participate... [chuckles] well, they have a lot more time than we do. And there's thousands and thousands of them that could dedicate their lives to helping make this new world really special. And if they work with us, if this really catches on... aw, c'mon! That's something we've never seen before. And so we're really excited about this idea. We're not relying on it, but my god, if it happens, it'd be just amazing.
Omeed: We expect the players will constantly surprise us with the amazing stuff they do.
Dave: We embrace a concept called multiclassing in this game. The old Dungeons & Dragons model was to basically pick a class, level up, and then unlock a tree of abilities, and that's how you advanced. And we're not doing that at all. What we're doing instead is giving the gamers a new gaming experience where they can go out and collect all kinds of different classes. You start out with just one, but then when you adventure through the world there's more than 40 other classes out there in the world for you to experience. And when you get them, you not only collect a lot of classes that you can switch between, but you can actually mix and match between the abilities and actually make a class that is your own, something that is unique and fits your exact gaming style.
Omeed: We really wanted to reevaluate basically everything when we approached this game. And so I think that the class system is one of the most obvious places where you see that. And the amount of combinations and the diversity that's there is just incredible.

Cheap lazy devs lol. They want us to build the game for them. I have no interest in Landmark. I hope many do because I will not be building a world just to watch it change & get torn up. Also PC only. meh

EQN is acting like the are doing revolutionary things but imo they just took a lot of the best things from different games and put them all in one game. That is kool, but nothing new. Minecraft, Rift, Battlefield, FF14 ARR, Dragon's Prophet, Guild Wars 2 etc

Dave Georgeson, Director of Development for the EverQuest franchise, has been busy in Germany spreading the word about EQNext and Landmark at Gamescom. He tackles some big questions in this audio interview with MMOBuff. Have a listen!

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SOE wants your opinions, and to prove it they've added another question to the EverQuest Next Round Table. They've asked whether friends lists should be account-based, or character based.
Here are the poll options:

• I want to link accounts with friends I add, so I can see any character they have online.
  
• I want the option to add friends by account. With approval I’d see all of their characters. Denial would show only the friended character.
  
• I prefer to add friends by character. If I want to add their alts I will do that manually.
  
• I don't have a preference
  

Vote in the poll on the EverQuest Next official site.
Personally, as much as I love my friends, sometimes I play an alt when I have limited time, and it's nice to be able to accomplish a few things in solitude. Truth be told, even in games I can be a bit of a loner on occasion. (Although normally I'm a real-life introvert and an online extrovert. Go figure.) So, my choice would be to make adding friends by account optional, but not hardwired into the social mechanics. If I choose only to have the friend I add see the friended account, then I can still sneak off to play an alt whenever I want to while maintaining my anonymity.
What's your opinion? How would you like to see friends lists operate? Share your thoughts!

Hey Ronson do you know a way I can contact Wikedjug from EQOA/ROT? I wanted to see if he was playing FF14 ARR and get him in our Guild. The other main EQOA guild on FF14 is from Hodstock called Merciless Mercenaries.

ya

PM me his info when ya can

Contact him on the Cosa Nostra forums here

http://www.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=9493&TabID=77710

or Cosa Nostra facebook page here

https://www.facebook.com/CosaNostraGuild?sk=wall

I've been a member of that Cosa site for a long time but my rank is too low when I click on wiked name to access his email. I'll try facebook one