Monthly Feature:
EverQuest^® II:  The Echelon Guild's New EverCrack
November, 2004

The wait is over.  One of the most eagerly-anticipated MMORPG games this year, Sony Online Entertainment's EverQuest II officially launches on November 9, 2004. This month in the Monthly Feature, Guild Admin Palomino provides an overview of the EverQuest II interface, the environment, and what to expect in the world of Norrath.

Well, EverQuest II is almost upon us.  I had this almost complete over a week ago, then Sony went and introduced two patches that completely overhauled both the spell system and the crafting methodology.  Here now, at long last, is a quick preview feature on Evercrack II!

Killerbee has an amazing writeup of The Isle of Refuge, so I'll begin once you reach Qeynos.  Off the boat you immediately speak with the Steward of your little suburb.  It seems you are not a citizen of Qeynos yet, and therefore cannot enter the city itself.  The steward directs you to the Inn where a room has been reserved for you.  For the small price of 5s per week, this shall become your apartment until you can move on.  Yes, you get your own residence to modify and decorate as you see fit.  This is also the place where you will sell your wares from.  They show up on the city broker's lists, but only so long as you are home and logged on to sell them.

There is room at this Inn

The Housekeeper at the Inn gives you a great introduction into the way the rest of the game will work.  She sends you on your quest to obtain citizenship, which consists of 3 or 4 steps, the intentions of which are to teach you the layout of the city, and also its values.  As a roleplaying aspect, it's well done and doesn't get too tedious even though you must perform it for each character.

Don't like killing rats?  Then don't!  It is entirely possible to level up to 10 and beyond simply by doing quests.  There are delivery quests and kill quests, and crafters can skip the adventuring altogether if they wish and craft their way to citizenship.  (This was in, but was removed recently for a fix…due back)  You can have up to 50 quests active in your journal at once, and deleting ones you don't intend to finish is possible.

What 3 days of playing casually can get you

The city of Qeynos is large, consisting of multiple zones, each with a map already in your possession.  The outdoor world you must discover for yourself, and it maps into your collection using the Fog of War method.  If you've seen it, it's mapped.  A few of the city zones are:

Baubbleshire

Qeynos Harbor

Forest Ruins

Castle View from Qeynos Harbor

Elddar Grove

Zones are accessible by gate, walking or also through a boat system that is setup similar to the subway in City of Heroes™.  Long distance travel can be done on the back of a griffin, on your own horse, or by boat from island to island.

Ah, combat!  The heart of any MMORPG (minus A Tale in the Desert) is the combat system.  Recently SOE changed the spell lists for many classes, giving them spells that more specifically reflect the idea behind that class.  Clerics get the reactive heals, druids are regeneration specialists.  Shamans have wards to prevent damage.  Sorcerors nuke, enchanters mez, and so on.  The classes I just mentioned however, are secondary classes.  They come from the fighter/mage/scout initial class.  At 10 you promote to a different class, by another of the multi-step quests.  At 20, you pick your final profession.  For instance, Druid can become a Warden or a Fury.  Crusader chooses either Paladin or Shadowknight.  Now, onto the fighting!

Combat itself is fast-paced with little downtime.  Mobs are indicated as being either Solo or Group, and all mobs in a group will light up when you select any of them.  Group mobs are intended for 3+ players, and they mean that.  A group mob that cons blue to you, would be yellow or worse if it were a Solo mob.  Here is a shot of combat in action, at the Forest Ruins fighting a group mob by myself, but from 5 levels above it.

As Miss Piggy says, "Hiiiiiiii-yah!"

Finally, loot obtained in a group can be autosplit, free-for-all, or leader-only.  The group leader decides.  There is a 6 level max range on getting XP in groups, and up to 6 people can be in a group.  There are, however, methods of combining groups into a "Raid" of multiple 6 person groups.

Overall, the enormous world, the crafting system that I can't even explain in words, and the sense of permanence that's granted by having a house and guild house make Everquest II the game of choice for me.  I cannot compare it to World of Warcraft, though I did test both.  Each of them has its own feel, and you just know which you'll prefer when you've tried them both.  Small things in EQ2 add up to a different experience.  The voice acting is generally top-notch.  Each animal in the city has a name, horses, dogs, etc.  Here are a few closing screenshots that I think give a feel for the early levels of the game, when you're still inside the big city.

They sure do like that Antonia Bayle here

NICE items as a quest reward

There goes Sergeant Quackers and family

That used to be the moon of Luclin

Everything seems tall to a dwarf!

This poor guy got turned into a frog.  Hobart can give you more information on that.

That's it.  I hope you'll join us in Norrath.  I wish they were conducting an Open Beta, but it looks like SOE is going to call Open Beta "Free 30 Days."  Don't let that scare you off though.  Between patches the servers are stable, and downtime on patch days doesn't even last long.

Ouch!

Palomino has served as Game Manager for The Echelon Guild's Horizons chapter.