Over at the EQ Dev Blog they’ve indicated that the beta for Seeds of Destruction has just been opened. Grats to anybody that got in!
If you still haven’t applied, you can do so here. It looks like they’ll be letting players join in stages, so don’t get discouraged if they don’t pick you right away!
Well folks, here it is. EverQuest, Seeds of Destruction, is officially announced. Allakhazam has a post on it.
To prevent the cataclysm and defeat the forces of chaos, players must journey through time portals to the greatest moments in EverQuest history. From the founding of Qeynos to the battle of Bloody Kithicor, players will be called upon to safeguard history and ensure that events unfold without interference from the gods of Discord.
EverQuest® Seeds of DestructionTM Features :
* Mercenaries Player controlled NPCs are available in EverQuest for the first time! Visit the EverQuest home page for a video demonstration!
* 20 New Zones Features re-imagined classic content as well as brand new realms to explore! Check the EQ Players community website for regular features on zones, NPCs and more!
* Level Cap Increase
The parts I bolded I found the most interesting. Lore wise, this sounds like a pretty dang neat expansion. Go through time and protect EQ’s events. I’m guessing there could be some pretty nifty content here. That’s got me pretty excited.
The mercenaries, on the other hand, scare me a bit. Obviously, until I actually know how they work, it’s all just speculation. I look at it two ways. On one hand, they will be effective, work in all zones, and get used a lot. To me, this would almost be a bad thing. I understand that the group game needs some help, but this would all but kill pickup groups. On the other hand, they could either be too weak or only work in certain instances, and will go pretty much unused (hello shrouds). I’m definitely interested in learning more about the mercenaries.
I thought the Living Legacy was over, but I guess not. Over in the EQ2 world, the Living Legacy promotion was such a hit (or perhaps failure?) that they’ve decided to continue it. The strange twist? They aren’t targeting former EQ2 players, they’re targeting former EQ players.
It makes sense they would want to funnel their players to their latest game, but this move shocks me a bit. Why did they extend this offer only to former EQ players? Why isn’t EQ getting any sort of Living Legacy extension? Is this a sign that perhaps EQ2 isn’t performing as they would like? Why wouldn’t they also extend this offer to EQ and let former EQ2 players try out EQ? Or, at the very least, allow the offer for former EQ players to play EQ to go on a little longer.
My gut tells me that they want to move as many players as possible to EQ2, but there’s plenty of ways you could try and read between the lines.
EverQuest Traders
I had to add this. This is one of the silliest things still left in EQ. If you’ve never played EQ, let me explain how selling works in EverQuest. First, you zone into the Bazaar. From there, you grab some Trader’s Satchels to stuff your loot in. You run to the appropriate selling area and type in /trader. You add your prices and voila, you’re selling. Ok, so that’s pretty easy right? What’s the problem?
Problem
You have to be logged in the whole time you’re selling! Yes, that’s right. Leave the computer on all day all night, whatever. Just to sell stuff. If you want to actually play, you can’t sell unless you have a separate account. Quite simply, that’s annoying.
Solution
All right, I’ll be honest, the solution is obvious. Give us offline trading! EQ2 has it. WoW has it. Figure it out. It can’t be that hard. At launch EQ2 didn’t have offline trading, now it does. Implementing it must not be too difficult. We need it. It’s a terrible, terrible part of the game. Although new players are getting rare, anytime the selling system is explained to them, they always react the same way; “You mean I have to stay logged in the whole time?!” It’s silly and needs to die. /rant off
Just figured I’d post this for anybody that’s interested. EverQuest now has several openings for new community leaders. As a community leader you’ll get some inside looks into future ideas and expansions for the game as well as the chance to interact with the developers on a more frequent basis.
Tnexus, over at the EQ Outriders forums has indicated that they’re looking to have about 3 representatives total for each class. Their idea is to have one grouper, one mid tier, and one high end player for each class. Seems pretty good to me.
So if you think you can add a good voice to the community submit an app on the EQLive forums.
I just saw something a few hours ago that made me realize something…EverQuest has an awesome player base.
I was sitting in the Bazaar, looking through some items, when I saw a question pop up in ooc. The question was something to the effect of, “I’m looking at items. What does mana and end do?” This, undoubtedly, is a very big noobie question. This isn’t just an EverQuest noobie question, this is an RPG in general question. On many other MMO’s, I can only imagine the remarks that person would get for asking such a question.
The response they got? Two people responded (both with similiar answers) with, “Mana is used to cast spells. The more mana you have, the more spells you can cast without taking a break. End is endurance, which is like mana, but used for melee skills. The more endurance you have, the more skills you can use before resting.”
I was both shocked and pleased to see a noobie treated with such a respectful and helpful response.