EQ2 Stuff

[The Bog]

This is information I garnered directly with my own two eyes from an event that Sony held a few days ago. If you've already heard some of this, tough shit, I'm saying what I saw. The guy who I discussed this information with was Andy Sites, the producer. He was very much open and honest to questions. He did not say "no comment" to anything I asked.

It's gonna be haphazard as I'm quite literally covering notes.

First and foremost, the voice acting is not going to be generated in the slightest. It is all screen actors guild...actors, and will range from your normal people in the game to, of course, the AAA grade actors. These are still unconfirmed, apart from the vocal talents of Dwight Schultz (sp?), aka Mad Dog Murdock from The A Team. Mr.T is at yet not part of the game.

Not that I didn't suggest him as Al'Kabor :/

You've already heard his voice - he's the captain of The Far Journey.

The environments, as you well know, are partly new partly old, based upon the huge cataclysm that ravaged Norrath. The game will include a storyline that helps unravel what exactly caused this.

I was able to see blackburrow and CT. BB is great - it's now a valley of sorts, full of the new gnolls (who are more wolf-like, and have beedy eyes. They look great). Those of you who played EQ - the huge drop in the tree is still there. It is now very indiana jones, with the huge waterfall and rickety bridges.

Also, I got to see a little of CT - these were brief looks, obviously. Most impressive of that which I saw was the Amygdalan Warriors. Instead of the human-sized ones we're used to at present, these ones are huge, thundering creatures. Venecore the dragon also waits in this zone.

Some classes are limited to good, some to evil, and some are able to go either way.

You're able to customize your character's look on creation a lot - from the simple hair and headresses to the age. Not only this, but if you find one thing you particularly like but want to do a random to see what you come up with on other parts, you can lock them, so they wont randomize.

Frogloks will NOT be selectable at first. They will be unlocked via a serverwide event á la the sleeper - I didn't get any idea of how hard or easy or whether it's solo or group or raid to do, but I know that it'll be server-based, like the warders.

A crazy idea is the way in which they want to continue people having both EQ1 and EQ2 accounts is the possibility of guild chat between EQ1 and EQ2 players. No more details than that.

Laura Karpman (Protege of John Williams, did the music for taken) is composing 90 minutes of original score with the Prague Symphony Orchestra. This includes the original EQ theme remastered. Ohhhh. From what I've heard it's fantastic, ranging from very pompous, loud, dark music for freeport to light happy stuff for Qeynos.

They have two dedicated programmers on special effects and atmosphere. This means you've got little bugs and stuff running up walls, and snakes and the like. Snakes and centipedes look crazily good. In the Qeynos Aqueducts are all sorts of crazy blob things, and it all feels even more tense and dark than before.

The commonlands look like plains. It's great. I didn't get a very long look.

Freeport is like a dark fortress. Lucan's fortress floats above the ground using some sort of magic, and the sky is grimy and grey.

On the flipside, Qeynos is light, with grand, beautiful archiecture and glorious sunshine. A funny moment was when a man herded all the ducks to him, and walked around the city, then stopped and shouted at a cat who attacked them. Hahaha. Ducks.

This leads quite nicely onto the atmosphere itself. With the voices, the music, and the ambient sounds, mixed with the environments themselves, the game is very, very immersive. I, to be honest, didn't get far in the few hours I had to play, so I can't say if the rest of the game follows suit. But what I saw was great.

As for combat and all that jazz, yes, they're going to get it tighter for contact, so it actually looks like they're fighting rather than being two metres away.

After launch, an XML UI builder will be released for you to build your UIs with, or you can use the usual ways that you've used before. I don't know what they are.

You're going to be able to set your mood ingame. I can imagine every kid out there choosing angry so that they can be the badass.

The quest system is very much like Wow's in that you get dialogue, and you get things to do, and there's a journal that keeps a simplified entry of what was said in there for you to check out, and then exactly what you need to do (like, say, you have to kill four things, you kill them, then who you have to go back to speak to).

Also, when you have a quest available from someone, they'll say "hey, come over here," and that's how you'll know, rather than a question mark or exclamation mark above their head.

Faction will affect they way in which people will react with you. Yes, this is like EQ1. Except, if you have bad faction, they'll visibly cringe away from you when you come close, or just ignore you and turn away. Or, of course, attack you. Unless you're higher than them.

This is evident in dungeons too - if you're high enough, mobs will cringe away from you, instead of just standing there. They'll act scared and scamper away from you.

Overall, I was impressed. As I said before, it isn't trying to be a WoW-beater, it's trying to be EQ2. Most likely the cynics in you are going to say "HAHA SO IT SUCKS!" regardless of what I say, so I don't expect any minds changed.

The game isn't finished yet, so I'm not going to go into direct specifics on everything because that wouldn't be kosher - that, and I have cleared all this information with them before posting.

If you have any other questions, I'll answer them as best I can from what I remember.

[mangina]

This is The Bog, fuck you San Diego.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

From what you saw what is so far completed? What still needs work? And how long do you expect it will be before the game is released (assuming it is released when it is "ready")?

Also, did they mention "after release" too often when talking about features?

[Vinen]

Originally posted by The Bog
~

Wow, finally a well written informative post on EQ2. This makes it sound a hell of a lot better then everything else I have heard.

[Dumar]

All of what you described sounds great! Those words make me excited!

It's just that.. that those words don't quite match the game I've seen!

[Tuco]

Sounds good, it looks like they're trying to do a lot of quality on the immersiveness of the cities. I would question how much quantity of this they could reproduce, but it sounds great.

Of course, I remember a SWG report a long, long time ago in a galaxy far far away that resembled what you posted.

Thanks for posting this, though.

[The Bog]

Of course, I remember a SWG report a long, long time ago in a galaxy far far away that resembled what you posted.

Yes, but remember I've had 4 years of Everquest 1, and was going in there the biggest cynic you're gonna find. Prior to posting this, I asked them for clearence to post - they asked me to give them feedback on the game before hand. I gave them everything I could think of.

So, in other words, from the off they're listening and eager to learn what they've done wrong. They were straight away admitting they had fucked up in the past.

Originally posted by Nebuchadnezzar
From what you saw what is so far completed? What still needs work? And how long do you expect it will be before the game is released (assuming it is released when it is "ready")?

Also, did they mention "after release" too often when talking about features?

"Fall" was a tentative release date. However, do NOT quote me on that - also, by the sounds of who I was talking to, they would definitely not release an incomplete game.

The only "after release" thing I heard was the XML maker.

I can't say what needs work and what doesn't need work, because the game is still in a stage where an NDA counts on it.

There was lots to do, and in the hours that I played it I did not scratch the surface.

Stuff I didn't mention that I should have -
Graphics wise, the game can be messed about with a lot. They realised that it's going to go into the future and need to look good in a few years...and on the top settings, it is something amazing. Butterflies have shadows. Everything has shadows. Light bounces off everywhere. Bump mapping. Dirty goblin pimples.

On the flipside, you can scale it down so it's not quite so aesthetically pleasing, but will run on your cardboard processor.

Oh, also, every skin is going to get a go-over. Graphically things are going to get better, very much so. This is a team of dedicated EQ players, and the guys that I talked to were very into their game. I think it was said twice that they were learning from the mistakes of the last game.

PS: It's "This is the Bog, go fuck yourself San Diego." Gotta love Anchorman.

[Dumar]

http://everquest2.station.sony.com//...eneral/006.jpg

Is that a gnoll?

[The Bog]

An old picture of one.
They've had some work.

...god knows why the gnoll is there, though. That looks like CT to me.

[Cybsled]

The Froglok bit reminds me of Horizons ;o

[Tuco]

My dog is crazy... why can't gnolls be crazy and go places they shouldn't?

If they really wanted to please all the naysayers regarding the models, they should make one good human model and show it off with realistic modeling, fluid animation, and belieavable textures.

What template did you play(class/race etc)? And how did it play?

The mood setting thing is kinda cool, it at least makes a way to intelligently differentiate between players and add a sense of immersion.

Oh, and...

YOU GONNA GIT RAPED!

[The Bog]

What template did you play(class/race etc)? And how did it play?

I played an Iksar Fighter and a Human Mage/caster type thing.

I can't say a great deal about the fighting. It was good fun. On levelling, the original "ding!" sound returns.

On the island of refuge every class goes to a different person to start their initial quests, and does different quests in the same area.

[A Lizard]

Originally posted by The Bog

Graphics wise, the game can be messed about with a lot. They realised that it's going to go into the future and need to look good in a few years...and on the top settings, it is something amazing. Butterflies have shadows. Everything has shadows. Light bounces off everywhere. Bump mapping. Dirty goblin pimples.

On the flipside, you can scale it down so it's not quite so aesthetically pleasing, but will run on your cardboard processor.

What were the specs on the machine which you min/maxed the graphics on.

[The Bog]

Originally posted by A Lizard
What were the specs on the machine which you min/maxed the graphics on.

The best was a 2.8ghz with 2 gigs of ram and a geforce 6800.

I played most of my time on a 3.0ghz with 512 ram, with a geforce 5200 or 5700. I think it was the former, but do not quote me.

I min/maxed on both.

From what I saw (And remember, this is me, mr wuhtz a computer) it was 3D card/ram dependant. It was perfectly playable on the lesser ram/3d card and still looked good. That, and the game is going to go through a lot of optimising over the coming months.

[Ham n Cheese]

I give this thread two thumbs up.

What kind of zones were evil/good only? Fighting zones or just cities?