Expansion Announcement: Prophecy of Ro
by Loral on January 03, 2006
Today Sonly Online Entertainment announced the coming release of Everquest's eleventh expansion, Prophecy of Ro.
The Press Release focused mainly on the new features of the expansion including breakable objects, traps, and Spheres of Influence. The press release is vague on detail so we can only speculate on what these features mean.
It will be hard to get excited over breakable objects. We saw them in EQ2 and once you've picked up a table and thrown it through a window in Half Life 2, smashing open a barrel just isn't the same. Larger scale breakable objects, like castles falling out of the sky or orc-laden bridges collapsing into the depths of a cavern would add a lot of excitement. Currently, however, details on the exact meaning are slim.
The same can be said for the two other features. Spheres of Influence are described as localized areas where the rules of the game can change to aid allies or thwart enemies. For example, sandstorms may be called down to blind anyone who enters an area. Both player created and environmentally created spheres may drastically alter the battlefield. How these spheres will effect player versus player combat is also unknown.
Traps should also effect the battleground before combat begins. We can only speculate that these traps will be similar to the hunter's traps in World of Warcraft. Players set the traps, lure the mobs into them, and hit them with nasty effects. These traps will not be rogue-only, but rogues will have more versatility with them than other classes. Players will also face some devious traps in their adventures.
Again, the press release is vague on the details of these three features so hopefully we will learn more about them soon.
Other minor features are more specific and sound quite useful. Buff filters will let players select which buffs they want to avoid. This mainly effects high-end players who hit the limit of buffs quickly. Eight new bank slots add a total of ninety six new available slots. That should help tradeskillers quite a bit. New spells, tradeskills, tasks (solo quests I assume), and disciplines are also mentioned but not AAs. We might see some Dragons-style AAs won over the course of missions or quests but I don't think we'll see entire new banks of AAs like we saw in Depths of Darkhollow.
Digging into the content, Prophecy of Ro will contain seven static zones and thirty missions, including monster missions. The press release also mentions six small instances but I expect those are the zones used for the thirty missions. The expansion will include new monster missions but overall we will not see as many missions as we did in Depths of Darkhollow.
The scaled difficulty of the expansion is also mostly unknown although raids will be scoped for Demiplane of Blood and Anguish-level guilds. Smaller events will likely start at Time / Elemental level and go up from there. The number of these events and raids is, you guessed it, currently unknown.
More interesting than the press release itself was the press kit I received later. The following nine screenshots were included and released for publication:
The names of the images are nearly as interesting as the images themselves: Dissonance, Relic, Arcstone, and Freeport. I don't think we have to guess very hard to figure out which old-world zone is getting a makeover. This discovery alone brings up many new questions. Will Freeport be a new hub? Is SOE planning on revamping other major cities? How will SOE get more players to spend time there when newer city zones like Abysmal Sea go mostly unused?
The story behind Prophecy seems to focus back on our time with the gods in Planes of Power. A new diety seems to be causing catastrophic events to unwind and only the adventurers of Norrath can help. From the screenshots above, it appears new Planes may be in our future.
Like most details, we do not know how SOE will handle loot in Prophecy of Ro. The point system of Dragons led to bottomfeeding at the easiest missions to acquire loot. Depth of Darkhollow's one-time loot resulted in a lot of nice gear from a variety of missions but only for a few slots. It isn't uncommon to walk away from Depths of Darkhollow with five different neck items or four shoulder items. This resulted in a lot of wasted loot.
Neither of these two previous systems seem ideal but they did have advantages. With those systems, players did not compete for items against other group items. Random drops off of rare mobs was not the only way to earn gear anymore. Hopefully new hybrid systems can help players earn appropriate rewards for appropriate challenges and reward them for facing a variety of challenges instead of the same one over and over again.
It's hard to follow an expansion like Depths of Darkhollow. Monster missions added a unique and powerful feature to Everquest - one that has already changed how people think and play the game. Breakable environments, traps, and spheres of influence just aren't as exciting. Likewise, including half of the missions contained in Depths of Darkhollow makes it clearly sound like a smaller expansion than Depths both in powerful features and in pure content. Yet the price is the same.
Granted, the time spent in Everquest expansions far exceeds the time spent on more expensive games with less content, but when one considers players paid the same amount for huge expansions like Planes of Power, one comes to expect more for our dollar than what we expect from other games.
This announcement also comes amid lengthy discussions on the Everquest expansion release schedule, a topic of heated debate since the rumors of Prophecy started nearly three weeks ago. I will take a deeper look into this topic in a future article to see exactly where these frustrations come from.
The full scope of this expansion is still not known to us. Until more information becomes available, we can only work with speculation and conjecture. More details will surely come soon.
Loral Ciriclight
3 January 2006
loral@loralciriclight.com
Comment Posted by: Nanyea on January 3, 2006 09:02 PM
Evil! but good commentary
Comment Posted by: Armarant on January 3, 2006 09:41 PM
I think if breakable enviroments are done properly they could add something to the game that could be very fun, like truely raiding and pillaging a city zone. you could start a monster mission as a dark elf where your a raid of dark elves breaking down doors around freeport and setting fire to the buildings. and for each building you succesfully ignite you get one step closer to your goal.
or perhaps you need to goto this new gods home and defile his statues and banners by ripping them to shreds and spreading the granite around the zone.
there are alot of ways they could do this properly. I just hope it doesnt turn into a Evolving item type scenario.
Comment Posted by: Hassan al-Nasir on January 3, 2006 10:22 PM
Well, I have to say I LOVE what appears to be the new Freeport. That alone has me beyond excited (I had always wanted to start in Freeport, I love the idea of a corrupt port city, but the graphics have always disappointed me).
I think you're still too enamoured of Depths of Darkhollow to really see the potential some of these new features have. Breakable environments alone make for a lot of new twists to old missions...I think it will be used primarily in instances so as not to ruin things for other people but there is massive potential there if it's done right.
Comment Posted by: Quseio on January 3, 2006 10:48 PM
ooo boy all i can say is about time they gave at least 1 old zone a graphic redo(probably more)
Cmon give us some more pictures and especially spell info !!/drool
Comment Posted by: Wolfkinder on January 3, 2006 11:07 PM
I find it very interesting that they seem to be doing a Freeport revamp. First Lava, then Nek, and now Freeport. If it's true, it would be interesting if this is the trend they're using to replace old zones completely. Reps have said that EQ has at least another 5 years of life, and it now is obvious the focus is on an expansion every 6 months which means by September or October they might be hitting Oasis -- (perhaps one of the swamps, referring to statements of Frogs getting a new home eventually)
As far as the size of the expansion, I'll wait to see. They've been getting better at making content that seems to have a decent life expectancy. I don't see this as another Ykesha in any way. Plus, like shrouds and monster missions, the expansions seem to be more and more towards improving the game as a whole. In other words, the Spheres and breakable objects, while maybe not so exciting now, may be something that in the next few expansions is worth looking forward to.
I guess I'm looking at the whole picture, that each expansion builds on itself and adds to EQ as a whole not just in zones and equipment, but in much more fascinating ways to play. A lot of people bash shrouds (don't use them much myself at the present), but there's a group of loyal fans already begging for more shroud content. The more diverse EQ can be, the better. The more diversified content, the more appealable. Not to say I want EQ to become too simplified, but I think that's not the direction they are taking.
I'm also curious about how far in advance they work on these story arcs? In other words, was this thing already halfway developed while they were finishing Dragons, Depths, or even Omens? Because there definitely seems to be a plan here (which I like) concerning revamping Old World and concentrating on the older storylines within EQ. We have now seen the return of dragons (DoN), Mayong (I'm assuming here -- Depths), and now the Gods, all pumped up to fight our most powerful guilds. Methinks SOE has, instead of revamping old zones and changing power/loot levels of old mobs, decided on the healthier direction of bringing the old mobs back more powerful than ever. I'm waiting to see, but I have to admit it sounds pretty damn kewl:)
-Wolfkinder
Comment Posted by: Mity on January 3, 2006 11:10 PM
Nice writeup Loral!! I like the pics of Freeport.
Bank slots: How did you arrive at 8 bank slots equalling 96 spaces? I thought bags topped out at 10 slots and 8x10 would be 80 new spaces for my tradeskill "junk".
Expansion release rate: I've seen the heated "discussions" on the EQ boards and I have mixed feelings about the rate myself. The 6 month schedule is designed to keep the folks in the game who race through content like a hyperactive kid in a candy shop. I understand why they do it from a business sense. As a player, I find the large number of bugs in the game maddening at times, knowing full well that many fixes are delayed because it seems like there is a 6 week window of real fixes between expansion releases (a huge chunk of time is lost to fixing new content post-expansion release, then for the 3 months leading up to the new expansion the devs are frantically working on NEW code rather than fixing the ancient bugs). I know the devs and designers work hard but it doesn't change my frustration level; I'm a programmer by trade.
Expansion size: LoY doubled our bank space and wasn't a real huge expansion IMHO. I still bought it. I'd rather have a small number of enjoyable new zones instead of a bunch of me-too zones. I plan on buying (err pre-ordering) the retail box for all my accounts.
It seems a fair number of folks were hoping for another level increase in this expansion. The press release doesn't confirm nor deny this (although I would have expected them to trumpet that fact). I'm rather glad they didn't raise the levels yet. I don't think we are ready for another large chunk of content to drift into dis-use because of a mostly level 75 population walking Norrath. My guess is that the designers looked at the data on the players to see how aa and level progression was going before deciding to not raise the max level to 75.
Comment Posted by: Loral on January 3, 2006 11:27 PM
It isn't so much the size that bothers me. I don't expect to see eighteen zones like the POP days. First of all, there is a big difference between zones and USABLE zones. Ykesha is the example, but imagine if Ykesha was tuned for Valor to Fire level instead of 30s to 60s. More people, especially at the time, would have loved it. Also, remember, Ykesha cost less.
I'm not frightened by the seven zones. Seven good zones could offer a whole lot of content. I am more concerned by the thirty missions. If this includes monster missions, thats not very many at all. DOD had over sixty missions in it, with twenty monster missions. Consider how many of those are GOOD missions - ones you would do over and over, and the number maybe goes down to half. If you do that with POR, you have maybe 30 missions total, 10 monster missions, five good monster missions, twenty normal missions with ten good missions. That's about two spell arcs worth. Not very many. Again, we're working with only the data we have so I might be wrong about all of this.
As far as the features go, I just don't think that breakable stuff means as much for the game as shrouds or monster missions do. We won't see fans who now focus their game around breaking things. Breaking things won't help bring level 10s and level 70s together. They won't help friends join friends for high-adventure. Breaking things, influencing spheres, or trapping stuff isn't a new path for EQ, its just a few extra features. Like I said, I'm really spoiled by monster missions, spirit shrouds, guild lobbies, and stuff like that. Of course, Omens was a fine expansion and the feature it focused on, the task system, came out pretty poor. Of course, it led us to the mission system which was a HUGE improvement to EQ.
Anyway, we will have to see how it turns out. From what I hear, this expanson will focus more on static zones and less on missions than DOD and thats probably a good thing. DOD's static zones are mostly empty while the masses head towards monster missions and spell arc missions.
I think if they make seven static zones that are highly usable WOS / MPG / RS type zones, we will see a lot more use out of them than places like Illsalin, Hive, Nest, Ruined City of Dranik, or Bloodfields.
It isn't just about content - its about good usable content.
Yeah, Freeport looks awesome =)
Comment Posted by: ARMYSOLDIER on January 3, 2006 11:44 PM
I wonder if they are gonna slip a new LEVEL cap on us..... WOOT come on 75 ... lol
8 more bank SLOTS.. woo hoo .. i need em ..
CRAP .. 12 accounts X 30 bucks...
anyone wanna donate to the poor soldier fund?
army
Comment Posted by: Frodlin on January 3, 2006 11:49 PM
It seems a nice balance can be struck between static zone hunting which some of us want to see expand and mission hunting.
Perhaps 60 missions was a little too much, you dont' see a lot of hunting in DoD static zones.
Comment Posted by: Aarkan on January 4, 2006 12:26 AM
I'm REALLY disappointed with new freeport... Not only is this not new content as far as I see it since we've already seen a dirtier, grungier and better looking Freeport in EQ2 there are many of us who have completely trashed our Freeport Militia faction and if they're trying to make it into a hub what about all the paladins who can't cast invis? I don't know, we'll see how it rolls though I do like the direction they've been taking things after Omens.
Comment Posted by: Aarkan on January 4, 2006 12:28 AM
This is what I wanted to see! Http://www.kingdomofsky.com it's not aviaks or faydwer like the rumors said but dragons is dragons!
Comment Posted by: QUSEIO on January 4, 2006 01:20 AM
I thought they said aviaks were liveing there to inc other races but it was RULED BY DRAGONS
Comment Posted by: Mikbik on January 4, 2006 01:45 AM
If, as it sounds they aren't releasing a full new set of AAs like they did with DoD (although it was done much better with earlier expansions) AND the are not raising level cap... then this is going to be a tedious expansion with a very small potential for overall gain...
I mean, Don gave casters 2 new spells... DoD gave us 3... I think if they don't raise the level cap and give casters a whole new set of spells extending every line then casters will be so far behind melee gain from throwin on another couple of combat effects and more AC and less dly with more dmg on weapons that you might aswell just quit playing a caster...
For all the new equipment, missions and itemization in the game... for casters at least, new spells are what makes or breaks an expansion... as a mage DoN was a joke... 2 new spells, both along 1 line, neither of which was of huge usefullness...
DoD is very popular with casters because of the thought put in to the 3 spells each class got... They were carefully designed to make each class gain a significant amount of power, without becoming overpowered while adhering to the classes self-perception (ie. mages gaining huge damage from a new short term pet while wizzies gain huge damage for a massive nuke)
but if they release yet another expansion without giving casters a full line of spells (and a less irritating method of getting their level 70 spells then spending an eternity stuck in content 3 expansions old praying for a drop and then begging for a successful roll) then it'll be mighty frustrating...
Not to mention there's already a decent number of players who have or are very close to having maxed the current available AAs... surely they'll start to get very bored with no more room for progression...
Comment Posted by: xsi on January 4, 2006 01:53 AM
"I think if they make seven static zones that are highly usable WOS / MPG / RS type zones, we will see a lot more use out of them than places like Illsalin, Hive, Nest, Ruined City of Dranik, or Bloodfields."
FWIW, RCoD is one of the only zones in OOW I have gotten much use out of lately. :P After ~40 or so hours of camping bowhound/GS/laborer/ornaia, I finally got my first greater rune. :P (Giving me my 69 lull as a monk, and enabling me to leave OOW the hell behind and go back to DoN in the hopes of gearing up to the point where our trio can try RSS, MPG, or some of the DoD zones)
So, RCoD is okay in my book. :)
Back to the regularly scheduled discussion of the expansion I will not buy. :)
Comment Posted by: Richard Hinson on January 4, 2006 04:32 AM
The way SOE is churning out expansion without fixing existing content just makes me all the more solid that I'm glad I canceled two of my accounts and am down to one.
As for Freeport being re-done, all i can do is laugh. I mean, think about it. Why re-do a port city? When was the last time SOE had working boats?
Don't get me wrong, I'll pick up this expansion for the little stuff tossed in. The "content" is meaningless to me as I'm still working to find ways into the PoP zones and pickup raids just don't happen any more during my play times. So really, for me this will be $30 for 8 bank slots and the off possiblity that my sneek theif will have a new trick.
All told, there's a lot more out on the gaming industry horizon that has my interest than yet another buggier than crap SOE release.
Comment Posted by: Glormane on January 4, 2006 07:04 AM
The reason why most DoD static zones are empty when its instanced zones are used is because there is no good loot dropping in the open zones.
Loot is either random, ergo no named to camp, or old OOW runes from insanely tough named.
The instances have post TIME loot, plus a cursor loot, and an objective to work towards, in mission and out (plot in mission, spell/task progression out).
The balance was a little out I think.
Comment Posted by: elfguy on January 4, 2006 08:06 AM
Ever since Luclin the expansions have been 2 per year. I dont think the schedule is the problem. PoP and GoD were the 2 last big expansions, with a full world and tons of events / zones. Since then we've had small expansions, and I think it's more than time we get another big one, but I believe the reason we don't is simply financial. The dev team has been reduced after GoD (live and dev teams merged) and so they don't have the resources to give us another velious or PoP.
Comment Posted by: Loral on January 4, 2006 08:27 AM
Raging Fury killed Mayong Mistmoore last night:
Aparently having his form cut down in Demiplane of Blood led him into god-hood. He is this mysterious new god we read about in the lore for Prophecy.
Comment Posted by: Dendory on January 4, 2006 09:04 AM
btw I was thinking about this Freeport revamp. What they could do is during January, make a live event where Lucan would take over freeport. Start with having hordes of Lucan mercenaries doing automated freeport attacks (with some random nameds dropping loot for those people deciding to defend freeport), and then end up with a_dead_freeport_guard everywhere in freeport and Lucan guards replacing them, and then the new freeport could be constructed and opened to all races since it's like a new administration...
But well knowing SOE I doubt something cool like that will happen, and we'll be expected to accept this new freeport design as if it dropped from the sky.
Comment Posted by: Ratzap on January 4, 2006 10:20 AM
Same old, same old. Welcome to LoY mk2
This is a very unexciting expansion, I can see this helping another batch of people to kick the EQ Habit. Sony needs to slow down the release schedule or put something in worth having.
Ratzap
Comment Posted by: Trinitii on January 4, 2006 11:49 AM
Guys....seriously take a look at what you are saying. OMG no, not another expansion.....OMG not enough levels......OMG Im not going to buy it.
First off, yes you will probably buy it. Yes, you will probably enjoy it. Why? Because this is EQ, and whether you enjoy all of the content or not, its still inventive and the social aspect is still there. PoR looks great to me so far. I really will enjoy having the focus shifted back to the gods and would love to see what some of the "evil" gods think of having Mayong as a new friend. If you dont think that there is good lore, or a great plot/story in this you are dead wrong. I trust that sony has it laid out well.
DoD and DoN gave alot to the casual community, so before you complain look at the stuff you can achieve now before you run off at the mouth.
For the high end raider, yes, we look to see new stuff, new challenge, and new fun. I just dont see how all this complaining will help. Its coming out, you will buy it most likely, and then line up to complain about the next expansion when it is press released in 6 months or so.
Comment Posted by: Dendory on January 4, 2006 12:09 PM
Trinitii: No we won't buy it just because it's EQ. I didn't buy LoY for over 2 years because it just didn't have anything I needed. And no, we're not just complaining for the fun of it. During PoP days, I was there with all the people saying how great and fun it was. And when LoY came out, I was there with those who said it wasn't worth buying.
What me, all high end raiders, and what I believe is a majority of the player base wants, is another well thought out, big expansion, that concentrates on a good story line that includes factions and lore, with lots to do in the vast static zones, not in small instanced missions, with tons of progression available, and fun. That's what velious, PoP and (after they fixed it) GoD were, and so far PoR doesn't seem to be.
Specifically, the next expansion needs to increase levels. Why? Because look at the amount of guilds in Anguish: 218. Then look at the amount of guilds in Demi-plane: 29. More levels means more people can do recent raid content. Next we need more AAs. DoN had no AAs, and while DoD did, many people are maxed. More than just 7 static zones, or at least if it's just 7, they are better be huge with tons of actual stuff to do in them, and not just zones people go thru to get to instances, like DoN or DoD. And lastly, fun events and progression. In PoP the lore was in your face, you knew it, it made sense (progress thru the gods to find out what they're up to). In DoD I applaud the fact that they added the overall mask reward, but the lore about it makes no sense, and the vast majority don't even know this exist, and keep to the spell arcs.
So yes we're complaining, we're saying what we want as an expansion, because after all these expansions are supposed to entertain us.
Comment Posted by: Armarant on January 4, 2006 12:35 PM
I personally hope with the new freeport they use all the tools available to them to make the zone alive and dont take a Nektulos zone feel to it,
there are areas of Nektulos forest that are still not complete in my opinion. like the spider eggs that have no loot.
and the fact that there are no quests in the zone like they included with Lavastorm.
I am hopeing for alot of quests that take advantage of the quest window in the new freeport and some new scripted events in the city zone itself like
1. a rotation of the guards.
2. small battles between the paladins and the freeport militia
there are of course alot more that can occur but these are just the first few that come to mind.
and with a february release date I hope they can release the new zone at least a month before hand so everyone can get a feel for it. (Though thats just wishfull thinking)
Comment Posted by: Armarant on January 4, 2006 01:10 PM
Dendory wrote:What me, all high end raiders, and what I believe is a majority of the player base wants, is another well thought out, big expansion, that concentrates on a good story line that includes factions and lore, with lots to do in the vast static zones, not in small instanced missions, with tons of progression available, and fun.
if there is one thing raiders dont want its progression that requires static zones. it has been proven time and time again that if progression requires a bottleneck there will be guilds who block other guilds from progressing just for fun.
Comment Posted by: simkin on January 4, 2006 01:13 PM
I guess I'm one of the few who like Ykesha. I spent a lot of time in its zones and they were well designed, had lots of named and some decent items for the levels. The biggest fault with LoY was it was tuned for 30-50ish and while SOE keeps saving the vast majority of people aren't max level, it certainly seems the most vocal are.
Contrast that with DoD which has awful zones. People don't play in them because you can't effectively, exp is ho-hum and there is no loot incentives.
I'd wager most people who scoffed at Dragons and Depths changed their opinion after a couple months once things such as quests, itemization, missions, etc became clear. Same thing will happen with this one. SOE knows how to keep making people buy expansions even if they use 20% of it, the other 80% draws them in eventually.
Comment Posted by: Loral on January 4, 2006 02:11 PM
I don't think the comparison to Ykesha is really valid. I doubt the expansion will have the level 30 to 60 focus that Ykesha has. Even if you have the same number of zones (and remember, Ykesha had no missions at all) if they are scaled higher the expansion will be more useful.
We still don't know a lot, but I think calling it the next Ykesha is premature and unlikely.
Comment Posted by: Wolfkinder on January 4, 2006 04:06 PM
While I understand people wanting this to be a larger expansion, I think it's unlikely that Sony will put out a PoP expansion in the near future if it takes more than 6 months to produce. I still read people complaining on the boards about how "difficult" PoP is for the non-raider, how there should be alternative access. This from an expansion that now is quite long in the tooth. While giving people more freedom of movement via the books, PoP really was geared towards the hard-core raider with many casuals feeling left behind for not just months but years. At least with the more recent expansions, there are a number of things built in for ALL players to find useful (all being defined as HIGH end casuals and raiders) making them better all around expansions for everyone.
Looking at raid guild progress in DoN, Omens, DoDH, and Gates on the raid progress board, it becomes obvious the progression was too easy in DoN, but I think DoDH has it down pretty well. At the moment I write this, only 2 guilds have beaten Tier 2 while only one has killed Mayong. Dragons has 66 guilds having beaten Vishimtar (end game for Dragons). Omens is 20 at endgame, and Gates is 92 at endgame (remember, Gates is now pretty old too). Dragons was too easy for raiders I suspect, but Depths seems to be holding its own considering we're now a month away from the next expansion. You can argue that you don't like the way it's presented or the manner in which Prathun has designed the encounters, but in January with only 1 guild at this time having defeated the content it seems that progression in Depths is fairly difficult.
While I'm not as much in agreement with Loral about what makes for a good expansion (honestly, it's unlikely SoE can pull something so originally new out of its hat like Monster Missions and shrouds for each expansion), I do hope that the content itself is of a depth and complexity that all players can enjoy. I don't think this is a Ykesha in any sense. I think it's Sony fine-tuning its new method of creating expansions, a method they've utilized in Dragons and Depths. And while some may complain, so far I like what they're doing, I like the lore I read about and hear about, I like the way they're expanding OUR world:) So, while breakable stuff (or spheres or traps for that matter) may not seem like a big deal when compared to monster missions and shrouds, I think it introduces new GAME mechanics that may give some of us that "Damn, that was way too kewl" feeling again. At least that's why I buy the expansions, even though so far I prolly play less than 5 percent of most of their content. To see the new stuff, to go on new adventures, and preferrably to do new and different things:) (like breaking in a door or setting a trap to boggle some mob I haven't been able to defeat before)
Maybe the setting of traps and spheres are a new way to allow smaller groups to kill beasts they couldn't take on before? Maybe this is expanding the casuals ability to attack new and old content? Maybe this is a small gift for those who cry out for solo content? We'll have to see I suppose....
As far as the 6-month schedule, I prefer new stuff every 6 months for another reason. If they screw this up (it does happen :) ), then I only have to wait another 6 months for an expansion I prolly will like. Can you imagine waiting a year or a year and a half after GoD for something new? I suspect we woulda lost even more people.
- Wolfkinder :)
Comment Posted by: menleniel on January 4, 2006 06:45 PM
Shrouds and monster missions mean nothing to me. This new stuff sounds interesting. Everyone is different.
I know if you are aa maxxed you would be disappointed, but I don't really think that many are.
I've done almost all single pickup group stuff I since I came back six weeks ago,week and certainly very few people I've run into are over 400. I've been looking into what guild to join, and even in the very top guilds I haven't seen more than a handful that maxxed. Probably why soe didnt add any this time.
Comment Posted by: Loral on January 4, 2006 08:32 PM
By the way, my friend Frodlin gave me an excellent chart of guild progression through various content:
Given 60 to 100ish members per guild, it was interesting to know that somewhere between seven thousand to twelve thousand people are "angish" level. Yet only five hundred to eight hundred are "DPoB" level at this point. Anyway, it gives us a little more data when we talk about raiding and raid progression and the like.
Comment Posted by: enobit on January 4, 2006 09:44 PM
I am truly interested in some of the advertised features of the upcoming expansion. As an avid tradeskiller I am looking forward to the increased bank storage and cretin that it will take little time to fill it LOL. The ability to block buffs from landing will help a lot. Even with twenty buff slots we find that there is still not enough. No doubt cleric’s and paladin’s will block Spiritual Vigor as Beastlord’s will block the paladins brells line of spells. Warriors will block spell haste and kei like spells. I only hope that they allow some buff management on pets at some point.
I fear that the advent of player set traps may prove to be easily exploited as to power level other characters and in EQ’s time proven fashion will likely be to costly for the effect that it renders either requiring unreasonable AA purchase or very rare drops to make. Breakable doors may sound like fun for a tank to bash down but I think that EQ will have a few surprises waiting much like the D & D game the doors will probably be trapped in some way making rouge a highly sought after addition to any group that may encounter such doors.
What appears to be a revamping of the Freeport zone looks intriguing. While the graphic details of this game become more and more challenging for video cards I am constantly amazed at the details that they introduce for our viewing pleasure.
I have no doubt that the new expansion will present new challenges and opportunities for all that acquire it.
Enobit
70 shamy on the Drinal server
Comment Posted by: Loral on January 4, 2006 10:35 PM
There's some new juicy screenshots up at:
http://eqplayers.station.sony.com/expansions/prophecyofro/media.vm
Freeport looks cooler and cooler.
Comment Posted by: Shikky on January 4, 2006 10:46 PM
Just to put a word in, think about the kiting possabilitys with the spheres and traps, and it makes more sense, in my oppinion, for rangers to have the most traps, rather than rogues, but thats just my oppinion.
Comment Posted by: Frogslobber on January 5, 2006 01:41 AM
If you ask me SoE is releasing it's newest expantion too early. Granted the Content of Everquest is massive in itself, being a 6 year veteran, there is no thought going into the latest expantions. We haven't even discovered or explored the last one. Some of us haven't even baught it. If we could get a refund on DoDH, I would be first in line. IMO its the downfall of EQ. Its no longer a question of what class and race you are, or what skills you have that will benefit my group. But how much time you have to complete mind numbing misions over and over for an exuberant amout of experience. EQ doesn't need an expantion, it needs a makeover. It needs something to get players back into the pasion they once had in the old world. New graffix for cities and old mobs. New loot tables for old zones such as the Karana's and old planes, Fear, Hate, Mischive. More intricate quests that have rewards that make them worth doing. Breaking a few windows and smashing doors is just a short term impact that will dull itself out once everything has been seen and done. Just as MM's will lose their pazzaz just as the LDoN missions have. There is no risk involved with the new adventures. No impact of haveing to run through several zones just to loot your corpse. With the corpse summoning ability in the Guild Lobby. In MM's it is impossible to lose any exp. Heck, if you die, you don't even have to loot your corpse. For there is none to loot. Its becomeing too simple. Rather than a game of strategy, where cunningness and well rounded groups were effective, now everyone is given the same ability. Hack and slash. Its focusing on how to keep players paying, rather than how to keep their customers interested. LoY was a great expantion. Larger bank, and OMG A MAP. Lots of usefull atributes. The actual zone additoins were well thought out. No need for 35 new zones and 15 instanced zones in hopes that one might become popular. After PoP expantion it all started to get too messy.
I await patienly for the day when EQ becomes an evolving world. I long to see the Orcs gather their forces and unleash it's fury on Kelethin. Goblins flooding into the mines of Kaladim. Ice Giants stomping out the guards of Halas. Something that will pit raid force against raid force. Good vs. Evil. Guilds who can claim that they were the ones responsible for the freedom of Rivervale. That they were the onse who drove back the Mud Golemns and Clan Runyeye back to the hills. Concour or be concoured. Lead a team through the sewers of Eastern Freeport and launch a suprise attack on the Humans. Claim the city as your own until you are over run by the Freeport Malitia. Kill them all and let Innoruuk sort them out.
Comment Posted by: Skuz on January 5, 2006 08:38 AM
The quality of the expansion looks good, the new features look like they have a huge amount of potential, however i have see huge potential poorly implimented & opportunities wasted,(LDoN) there is a huge amount of the gameworld already in existence that could be reworked with recent systems & given a new lease of life.
My biggest concern with this new expansion is volume, 30 missions seems an extremely limited number, it already seems like a DoD 1.5 rather than a full-blown sequel, unless soe are doing something along the lines of "small expansion to tide people over while we do work on a really big expansion" i cannot see this being received very well, the volume in dodh was very good, static zones needed much better thought put into them but the missions were extremely well done.
I think for the amount of missions in this coming expansion, unless the static zone are really big & have some kind of new fangled " create your own instance - on - the - fly" technology the price is too high, half the missions as in dodh might not mean exactly half the content but its difficult to see how it won't be.
Comment Posted by: Dendory on January 5, 2006 10:14 AM
Btw did you notice they modified slightly the features list? It now says a new Freeport and a revamped Desert of Ro. So I'm guessing all 3 freeport zones, and all 3 Ro zones.
As for the complaints about recent expansions, I don't agree DoD is the "downfall of EQ". That's just too harsh. DoD is certainly not amongst my favorite expansions, but I think it is a good step forward for casual players and for newer people. The focus they seem to take is to bring expansion zones closer to the main world, and include as much questing as possible, which is what modern MMOs do. I also agree with the people saying EQ already is too vast to be a healthy game. But on the other hand for old players like me who have experienced everything, SOE need not forget that we need enough stuff to do until the next expansion, else they will just lose more subscriptions. More AAs don't hurt anyone, more levels help, since it gives something to do for end game players and it allows mid-range people tackle harder content.
Comment Posted by: gkar on January 5, 2006 11:18 AM
with ro i hope they bring back more of the god like theme.nothing like killin your god like karana for instance.but 1 mob that needs a return is the sleeper.or veshawn.give the big power guilds somthing to work at.unkillable who cares encouter alone would be fun.we will se what they do
Comment Posted by: Wolfkinder on January 5, 2006 11:30 AM
Thanks, Loral, for the guild progression link. That's the one I was referring to above.
BTW, anyone look at the new screenshots? I'm just curious if anyone else noticed -- the SIEGE ENGINES? I'm just hoping that maybe breakable content is a bit more than doors:) The feature set I read says as follows: "Chop down doors, tumble walls, destroy encampments." Hmmmm, bit more exciting than just bashing a door in I hope. Plus with instancing (my theory on tools building upon tools) this may lead to finally the ability to take enemy cities. Can you imagine raids with a pumped up Freeport Militia or Neriak where your guild can knock down the city literally house by house? With new tools and the first of possibly many cities being revamped, it seems like at least a possibility:)
I doubt there will be a level increase. I say that because they announced a rise to 70 for the EQ2 expansion that's also being touted, so I think if EQ was getting one we'd hear about it. I for one don't think we need one this time, but next time I wouldn't mind seeing a raise to 75/80:) Only because I have the firm belief that the evolution of the game allows that as you get better gear and higher levels/spells, the old raid content becomes the new group and solo content, thus opening more of the game for the casual player. Yes, I know it kills off some of the game too, but that's bound to happen. A static 7-year-old game would be nearly dead by now. As a casual, I look forward to the expansions because they allow me opportunities not only within them but within all the other zones I could not previously do.
Freeport and Oasis, huh? Yeah. Just a guess here and predicting far in advance, but don't be surprised if the next expansion revamps Qeynos or one the the elf cities:)
Comment Posted by: RosesAreRed on January 5, 2006 02:58 PM
You mention Abysmal Sea as a "failed" city zone ... and it certainly is. The idea was good but it was and is very inaccessible, especially for non gaters. And as a side note ... I still hear people complaining that the Guild Lobby magus will port you to LDON camps, but the LDON magus will not port you back ... you have to run and again, for non gaters this is a huge, unnecessary pain. Both of these situations could be easily fixed.
Let's also hope the "new Freeport" stays light and bright. I've had enough of the dark, dreary zones of PoP and LoY. Not all dungeons have to be ugly .... think of the Velious zones ~ Crystal and Velktor ~ even Great Divide has sparkling rivers and bright tunnels. Those zones are beautiful and have the added challenge of slippery ice, invisible walls, dangerous falls, optional ways to travel through them etc.
Comment Posted by: Anonymous Bitcher on January 6, 2006 08:55 PM
/rant on
Again I see an expansion geared to the higher-end player who has already conquored things like Time/Qvic/Anguish etc. etc. etc.
What about the player who is level 65 or so and has never been to any of these places? The player in their 50's, just getting to places in Kunark, Velious, Luclin, Ykesha or any non-planar zone, and is minimally or NOT TWINKED?
Everyone seems to think that all characters have access to hundreds of thousands of platinum pieces, extant uber gear and playing time that rivals most work days....
/rant off
With all that said..IMHO...I still don't see much advantage to buying this new expansion, or even the last one for that matter. Sony just has not given much of anything to the casual player, or the player that cannot find a good enough guild to explore some of these places.
Things like the above and much more happenings in game and actions by the parent company really disgust me, NO wonder so many folks have been driven away from the game....and I will be so happy when my sub runs out....the only thing left in the game is logging in and talking to friends and guildies.
Comment Posted by: Loral on January 6, 2006 11:47 PM
"Again I see an expansion geared to the higher-end player who has already conquored things like Time/Qvic/Anguish"
From what I understand, PoR will have content for players of all levels. SOE has been pretty good about focusing expansions on the bulk of the playerbase without hurting the fringes too badly. DOD is a good example. It had twenty missions that players of any level can do as well as the 40 missions tuned for 60+.
"What about the player who is level 65 or so and has never been to any of these places?"
Getting people to go is the player's problem, not SOEs. We need to be more willing to explore these new zones. It is easy to get comfortable in old content but that doesn't mean new stuff isn't there.
"The player in their 50's, just getting to places in Kunark, Velious, Luclin, Ykesha or any non-planar zone, and is minimally or NOT TWINKED?
Everyone seems to think that all characters have access to hundreds of thousands of platinum pieces, extant uber gear and playing time that rivals most work days...."
Powerful gear was never easier to come by than now. Monster missions offer excellent rewards reaching 125 hitpoints and mana at level 70 on an event that has no level, class, or gear dependency. Dragons of Norrath offer's elemental level gear to those able to do any of the DON missions. The prices in the bazaar consistantly drop on gear that consistantly gets more powerful. Take a look at the old Kunark level 50 gear and compare it to items in the bazaar.
"Sony just has not given much of anything to the casual player, or the player that cannot find a good enough guild to explore some of these places."
The new tutorial, the new level 10 to 20 quests, the new monster missions, the new Lavastorm and Nektulos Forest - all of those are for lower level players.
Statements like "anything for the casual player" have no clear definition. There's tons of content for all levels and all power levels these days. DOD alone added a huge amount of content at every level. Not since LDON was there an expansion that offered so much to just about every EQ player. I expect that to continue in PoR.
Comment Posted by: Fnord on January 7, 2006 05:20 PM
"By the way, my friend Frodlin gave me an excellent chart of guild progression through various content:
That chart appears to list the top few uber-uber-guilds for each server. For every one of those, count 5-10 guilds 'family', non-uber, or simply not submitting data, who are not anywhere close to these lofty heights. (I'm guessing the mindset that drives people to push to the top-end raiding game also would drive them to participate in progress comparisons like this, so I doubt there's many uberguilds who aren't on that site).
Loral's comment is accurate for the 7-12k of players who are grinding their way to the top; but remember there are some hundreds of thousands who aren't.
Comment Posted by: Seduca on January 7, 2006 08:40 PM
I have a question for all of you... Is this game worth coming back to? I havent played for about a year and a half... and now my cleric is gone forever - so I will have to start all over from scratch.
The thing is... i am sooo disapointed with EQ 2 and WOW that every time I play i find myself thinking about EQ 1. I dont know how ill handle starting all over again with nothing though - thats the only thing that freaks me out. All the years of getting flagged and keyed etc... down to a level 1 with nothing... Hell i wont even know where to start on my AAs or even what level to start investing in them.
This game seems to have improved a lot though, and im willing to give it a go again. Its just gonna be frustrating for a while to not be anywhere near where I was.
Any thoughts?
Comment Posted by: Danille on January 7, 2006 08:49 PM
It really cracks me up how players come to these threads and make a post bashing SoE's next expansion just because they have to prove to themselves that their decision to leave the game after GoD release and WoW release was the correct one.
If you have been gone for that long, you have no idea what the heck you are talking about and need to STFU. Do us all a favor and stop the encessant whining. EQ1 has been much better off since you left. We are all having a blast.
Comment Posted by: Horzek on January 8, 2006 03:02 AM
-- No personal attacks... Loral ---
Comment Posted by: Loral on January 8, 2006 07:51 AM
"That chart appears to list the top few uber-uber-guilds for each server. For every one of those, count 5-10 guilds 'family', non-uber, or simply not submitting data, who are not anywhere close to these lofty heights. (I'm guessing the mindset that drives people to push to the top-end raiding game also would drive them to participate in progress comparisons like this, so I doubt there's many uberguilds who aren't on that site).
Loral's comment is accurate for the 7-12k of players who are grinding their way to the top; but remember there are some hundreds of thousands who aren't."
Actually, that is exactly my point in looking at this. There are more people in Anguish than I thought, about 10,000, but that doesn't come close to the number of people in EQ as a whole.
Comment Posted by: Terry on January 8, 2006 03:39 PM
Is there any chance that the PoP flagging will be further simplified? I don't know ANYONE who enjoys this feature of the game... and to say lots of players HATE it would not be an exaggeration.
Collecting pieces for keys or participating the basic progression raids, like Hedge, add interest to the game, but the endless hailing of NPCs and the chance to mess up a flag by missing a part of the sequence (as told to us in "mysterious messages") is frustrating and definitely a put off. Large, strong guilds will muscle all their members through these flags in short order .. but for the rest of us ....
Comment Posted by: Terry on January 8, 2006 06:28 PM
Seduca, unless you sold your account, you will be fully restored, level and equipment, if you reactivate. I believe there is also a free welcome back to eq one month subscription with reactivation, although it won't include the expansions you didn't have when you left the game.
Comment Posted by: Podge on January 9, 2006 03:39 AM
To Seduca:
I've just come back to EQ after about a year away, basically because SOE offered me the free account reactivation mentioned by Terry and I thought I might as well give it a go. (By the way, if you want to take advantage of that offer, I think it ends on January 13th, so don't think about it for too long :) )
I'm really enjoying it so far - I've been playing both as my old main (a level 70 beastlord) and as new characters, going through the tutorial (which I think is fantastic). However, I do have a few friends who have returned with me, so we've been doing LDoNs and stuff like that. I'm not sure how I'd feel if I had to start again from scratch, with nobody I knew - I suspect that would be a different ball game.
With the free reactivation for a month, though, you have nothing to lose - give it a go, and if you like it, great. If not, you've lost nothing.
Comment Posted by: Loral on January 9, 2006 01:15 PM
"Is there any chance that the PoP flagging will be further simplified? I don't know ANYONE who enjoys this feature of the game... and to say lots of players HATE it would not be an exaggeration."
The chances are extremely low. SOE already stated that they don't have any plans to change it.
The best thing you can do is focus your energies on one of the other newer expansions instead of PoP. The rewards are better in DOD than they ever were in PoP without all of the flagging woes.
Comment Posted by: Terry on January 9, 2006 07:52 PM
Yes, I know DoD has better rewards ... but often the groups I find myself in with friends are working on the PoP progression ... so ...
if I want to play with them ...
Meanwhile, because some previous steps have not been completed (the "mysterious hails") ... I get no credit in the progression although the mission was a success and I contributed both my time and skills to it.
Remember ... unless one is a member of an aggressive guild with a plan ... it takes many hours of grinding to get some of the items necessary for turn ins etc. PoS is a prime example of a totally boring time sink that EVERYONE HATES. And without ALL the steps completed, there is no hope of accessing any of the higher tier PoP content.
Comment Posted by: Jonah on January 9, 2006 10:44 PM
Beyond Pathetic. If you haven't figured it out all the real Developers are long gone.
Like many players I left when I finished PoP content. PoP was the last real expansion. They killed the magic that was EQ. They ran out of ideas with PoP. EQ ends with the plane of time as far as I am concerned, everything after that is an ugly boring reptitive joke.
Sony is not going to put a dime into this game in terms of hiring the creative team necessary to innovate,and come up with new ideas for the end game or rejuevenate the level 1-60 game to attract new players.
Comment Posted by: Hassan al-Nasir on January 10, 2006 01:29 AM
So Jonah, did you have anything interesting to say or did you just drop by to rant about a game you either
a) Don't play anymore and thus shouldn't get this emotional about or
b) Still play, meaning you should offer up some real solutions.
Given that EQs population spiked to its highest point after Planes of Power, and still retains roughly the same number of active players at this point in time than were active at that time, I have to say most players of EQ disagree with you.
Comment Posted by: Phrank on January 10, 2006 04:50 PM
"Given that EQs population spiked to its highest point after Planes of Power, and still retains roughly the same number of active players at this point in time than were active at that time, I have to say most players of EQ disagree with you."
Same number of active players?? Man I wish I could have some of what you are smoking. Being a fawnboi is fine but try to insert a little dash of reality. 1/2 the number of servers does not equal the same number of active players.
Comment Posted by: Armarant on January 10, 2006 07:10 PM
Phrank wrote: Same number of active players?? Man I wish I could have some of what you are smoking. Being a fawnboi is fine but try to insert a little dash of reality. 1/2 the number of servers does not equal the same number of active players.
actually they did not decide to merger servers because the top end did not have enough players.. there have always been enough players in the top end guilds, they merged them because the lower end. which has always had problems with empty zones had people complaining for server mergers.. so we ended up with servers being merged, and nothing coming from it other then the fact that we now have half the servers we did back then.
Comment Posted by: Treeslayer on January 10, 2006 08:18 PM
"actually they did not decide to merger servers because the top end did not have enough players.. there have always been enough players in the top end guilds, they merged them because the lower end. which has always had problems with empty zones had people complaining for server mergers.. "
* keep it clean -- Loral *
Do you really believe the fanboi PR crap you post?
WoW subscriber base = 5,000,000. Yeah, that didn't affect EQ1 in the slightest.
Comment Posted by: Hassan al-Nasir on January 10, 2006 10:48 PM
Check the numbers for yourself. They are largely accurate, are even used within the industry itself, and with EQPlayers you can even do the number crunching yourself if you're patient.
Everquest's subscription peak occured in mid 2004, corresponding directly with Omens of War Release Date.
The numbers have since dropped to a level last seen in mid 2003...the Lost Dungeons of Norrath release date.
Planes of Power release date didn't even correspond to a SPIKE in active players, simply the gradual increase in player base that had been seen to that point.
This puts the lie to the common refrain of Planes of Power being the pinnacle, ultimate moment. Maybe in the fond memories of the most elite guilds of them all, but they were never representative of the majority of players to begin with.
It's not a statement of a Fanboy, it's a statement of someone whose actually researched the numbers.
Comment Posted by: Loral on January 10, 2006 11:37 PM
Those numbers in the chart are based on press releases and news articles - they aren't accurate.
Also, don't bother to feed the trolls. It just makes them come back.
Comment Posted by: Allen on January 11, 2006 12:13 PM
As one who bounces back and forth between WoW and EQ1 ... I am completely spoiled by the WoW superior interface and mouse handling. Mouse over for class and level, sign posts etc. makes the game much sleeker and the smooth zoom in and out and around make 3rd person the view of choice. Although I still enjoy playing EQ, it feels like a dinosaur with its clunky models, awkward "f" keys, cookie cutter zones and static cities.
Comment Posted by: Armarant on January 11, 2006 02:25 PM
Allen Wrote:As one who bounces back and forth between WoW and EQ1 ... I am completely spoiled by the WoW superior interface and mouse handling. Mouse over for class and level, sign posts etc. makes the game much sleeker and the smooth zoom in and out and around make 3rd person the view of choice. Although I still enjoy playing EQ, it feels like a dinosaur with its clunky models, awkward "f" keys, cookie cutter zones and static cities.
somehow I doubt WoW is more dynamic then EQ :) from what I hear from WoW players most servers are at half the population that they were a year ago.
as for Cookie cutter zones, you cannot say that about EQ unless you consider every zone to be the same.. (Which I dont) you cannot for practical puposes say Lake of Ill omen is the same as Undershore.
and as for cities I agree static citys are bad. but not all cities in EQ are static. I am assumeing the freeport zone will be a base-line for new city zones to come, and they will improve and change that base-line as they get feedback on its release. but there are city zones that do have a vibrant feel and do feel alive, have you visited.. Rivervale or Thurgadin? if you sit around you will hear the NPCs talking to each other and scripts running, granted its not exactelty where I would like it.. (NPCs going to sleep at night, eating at noon. changing of the guards, harvesting the crops) but its far from static (nothing happening) in some of these city zones.
Comment Posted by: Armarant on January 11, 2006 02:27 PM
Fanboy.. errm I mean Treeslayer wrote:Do you really believe the fanboi PR crap you post?
WoW subscriber base = 5,000,000. Yeah, that didn't affect EQ1 in the slightest.
and I am supposed to beleive you just because you write about WoW and use profanity? in truth all MMO games inflate their subscriber numbers, and I have no doubt that WoW is as well.
Comment Posted by: Fnord on January 12, 2006 12:24 AM
Thanks Loral for clarification. I read your comments differently than how you evidently meant them!
As for numbers, SirBruce is long overdue on an update. It's been months since he updated saying he wasn't dead :) and the only reason I know he's not is because posts from him show up on games.slashdot.org occasionally.
Comment Posted by: Allen on January 12, 2006 03:17 PM
Armarant, why would I want to sit around in an empty city listening to NPCs chat over lunch?
Comment Posted by: Donald on January 12, 2006 06:42 PM
Freeport in the old days or Ironforge now are dynamic cities. People getting quests, banking, training, using the auction house, picking up mail. I agree. A few npc going through a script does not = an interesting busy city. Just to be sure, I visited Thurg. There were 2 people there and I was one of them.
Comment Posted by: Armarant on January 12, 2006 07:51 PM
Donald Wrote: People getting quests, banking, training, using the auction house, picking up mail. I agree. A few npc going through a script does not = an interesting busy city. Just to be sure, I visited Thurg.
PCs dont make a city dynamic. they make a city busy.. Dynamic indicates that there are NPCs that are moveing around and going thru a daily life and the city is living around you. not that there are people crowding the city.
though I would agree part of a city is the people who inhabit it.. the other half of course are the quests and events that occur within it.
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