SOE Live 2014 was a crazy time for everyone involved, for no one more so than the SOE staff themselves. That's why, after a couple of hiccups and conflicts while trying to find time to speak with Terry Michaels (Senior Producer for EverQuest Next and Landmark), I was amazed at the trouble they went to just to make sure we got a chance to chat about MMOs.
Even Omeed helped.
At SOE Live 2014, the EverQuest II audience had questions and the devs had answers! ZAM was there to keep track of what the community wanted to know. Senior Producer Holly Longdale was joined by Akil "Lyndro" Hooper, Kyle "Kander" Vallee, Carlos "Gninja" Mora, Nathan "Kaitheel" McCall, Michael "Xelgad" Ganz, Robert "Caith" Fouts, Dave "Maevianiu" Kish, and many other EQ2 devs to answer questions. If you missed it, here's a recap of what happened during the question and answer session after the EverQuest II keynote, as well as the AMAA Sessions Part 1 & Part 2.
The EverQuest II Systems and Mechanics panel revealed many exciting things in store for the upcoming expansion, Altar of Malice, and beyond.
According to the EverQuest franchise Director of Development Dave Georgeson, “EverQuest Next is going to launch with 40 different classes that you can find, collect, and use.” Even though you’ll have to select your starting class from a shortened list of around eight, it’s clear that there will be many multi-classing opportunities as you progress through the game. Last year at SOE Live, the Warrior and Wizard classes were introduced. This year, SOE is giving players a closer look at the Warrior and Wizard as well as introducing 3 new classes: the Elementalist, the Cleric and the Tempest.
This past year has been exciting for EverQuest! We've seen the addition of Heroic characters, new race/class combinations (Froglok Monks and Wood Elf Beastlords), player designed missions, and new zones such as the Plane of War, Tower of Rot and Argin Hiz. To top it all off, players celebrated EQ's 15th anniversary this past March with additional in-game festivities. EQ is expanding their player studio categories to include robes, and according to Senior Producer Thom Terrazas, players will be able to customize robe templates and he predicts that guilds will love being able to display their own designs. Check out a short video showcasing the robes after the jump.
"The Darkened Sea" expansion, mount keyrings, trader bags, and heroic characters were some of the topics covered in this afternoon's Dev Q&A session at SOE Live:
Q: With the addition of the Mount Key ring will it be possible to extend this feature to illusions, pet illusions, merc illusions?
A: Now that the tech for keyrings exists it will not be hard to add new types of keyrings in the future. Stay tuned! - JC
Q: Will any of the 8 zones have multiple raids or raid instances with multiple raids?
A: Yes there will be. There will be at least one raid zone with multiple raids in a single instance. -JC
Q: When will you be adding COTF zone wide rares back to heroics?
A: We're looking into adding the zone wide rare drops back in HAs. If we're sure the drop rate is working as intended. - JC
Q: The names of six zones have been announced, can you tell us the names of the other two?
A: The other two zones are: Brother Island and Katta Castrum: Waters Rising. - JC
If you're reading this between 6PM - 7PM Eastern, catch the live H1Z1 keynote!
We're on the ground at SOE Live, and the H1Z1 devs have shared a few tidbits.
We've put them together in one place, and here they are below!
Reading this between 5PM - 6PM ET? Catch the live DCUO keynote!
We're everywhere at SOE Live! Along the way, we ran into Larry Liberty, Executive Producer on DC Universe Online. We talked to him about DCUO's upcoming expansions.
Read on, heroes!
This week, we're on the ground at SOE Live!
We've been getting a close look at the latest news on Landmark and EverQuest Next. Between a press briefing and an interview, we've learned a lot. Below is a compilation of everything we've found, so take it all in!
SOE Live kicked off its opening ceremony last night, and while the keynotes are still to come this afternoon, we have some great information on the upcoming expansions and more for EverQuest and EverQuest II!
