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Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: schild on January 11, 2005, 11:53:56 AM I know I'm chopping at my own balls with a set of hedge clippers by posting this, but:
Quote SAN DIEGO, CA – January 11, 2005 – Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE), a worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online gaming, today announced EverQuest®: Dragons of Norrath™, a new expansion for the incredibly popular PC Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), EverQuest®. EverQuest: Dragons of Norrath is scheduled to be available at retail and for digital download from Sony Online Entertainment for U.S. $29.99 in February 2005 with a special incentive price for U.S. and European consumers who pre-order and digitally download directly from Sony Online Entertainment. “The EverQuest development team continues to deliver new content, adventures and features in yet another thrilling expansion pack for the world of EverQuest,” said Michael Lustenberger, vice president of marketing, Sony Online Entertainment. “Combining the power of the new graphics engine and nostalgic new storylines, EverQuest: Dragons of Norrath offers a beautiful new world and challenging new quests sure to please both new and veteran EverQuest players alike.” About EverQuest: Dragons of Norrath A series of events has transpired across the world of Norrath and the familiar faces of Firiona Vie and her nemesis Lanys T’Vyl return to find themselves at the forefront of these events. Unbeknownst to them, a dark influence has seeped into the world of Norrath causing new tensions to arise and conflicts to intensify as the dawn of a new age emerges. The Age of War is upon the people of Norrath and heroes return in this ultimate, unending battle between good and evil. EverQuest: Dragons of Norrath includes the following features: Feature Set: * New Zones, Creatures and Content - From Lavastorm to the Thundercrest Isles, adventure in graphically enhanced zones with all new themes. Brave challenging new quests, discover new treasures, and battle new NPC’s, including drakes, goblins and fierce dragons. * New Interactive World Map - A full color interactive map of the world allows players to point-and-click from a world view down to a zone view of the traditional line maps. * Player Barter System - Allows players to set up their own method of giving platinum or items in exchange for other items. * Potion Belt - Allows for quick use of inventory items. * Bandolier Equip - Lets characters have two sets of pre-arranged weapons for each hand. * New Spells, Tradeskills, and Recipes. All- New Guild Hall Management Tools: * Guild Halls – An instanced guild hall for guild members to meet and prepare for playing. * Guild Bank - Bank slot for storage of items accessible by all designated members of a guild. * Guild Stone - Allows guild members to easily port to the Instanced Guild Hall. * Mana/health Regen Pool - Allows players to easily regenerate their mana and health in preparation for battle while in the guild hall. * Mass Corpse Summoning Altar - Allows guilds to summon guild corpses en masse to the altar room. * Guild Portal - Allows guild members to purchase the ability to have a persistent port to pre-determined areas around the world. * Guild Tradeskill Objects - Various tradeskill tools are located in the guild hall for easy access by guild members. * Guild ‘Looking for Members’ Tool - Allows guilds to recruit by placing persistent “ads” on bulletin boards, search for player characters who match guild criteria and send in-game emails to those members. * Players ‘Looking for Guild’ Tool - Allows players to find guilds recruiting members. * Buff timers - Allows guild members to suspend buff timers while in guild halls. The new expansion will be downloadable via the EverQuest Station Store for U.S. $29.99 (plus tax where applicable). A special incentive price will be available to consumers who pre-order and digitally download direct from Sony Online Entertainment. Maybe someone here still plays EQ. Anyone? If not, feel free to ignore this. All things considered, there's a small chance I'm amused by dichotomy of one of the oldest MMOGs announcing an expansion shortly after another one is canceled and a company shut down. It's just that kind of week I guess. Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: Paelos on January 11, 2005, 12:26:15 PM The in-game guild recruitment idea is one that I think is probably the best thing in that whole list of junk. Most games could benefit from some kind of guild support system that helped recruit non-morons. Things like statistics sheets they could post about average time per session, average time of day logged in, % grouped vs. % solo, etc. That would help a ton.
Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: El Gallo on January 11, 2005, 12:26:51 PM Good to see them going back to traditional themes. I quit a while back, but man I was sick of expansion after expansion of fighting aten'pixxxt'thral and za'la'yxxta'ma'ra.
Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: AlteredOne on January 11, 2005, 01:06:59 PM Quote from: Paelos Things like statistics sheets they could post about average time per session, average time of day logged in, % grouped vs. % solo, etc. That would help a ton. Additional statistics could include in-game grammatical analysis: % of chat consisting of obscene words, % of words containing l337 speak, % of words containing outright spelling errors. But this would slow down the servers :P Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: Toast on January 11, 2005, 01:27:09 PM The guild hall stuff looks solid. That being said, I can't imagine playing Everquest again.
Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: LordDax on January 11, 2005, 01:44:19 PM EQ reminds me of my birthday cake. It was good until about the 3rd slice but then it was just the same damn cake just a different part of it. Now if there were some nuts and berries and ice cream and cookies thrown in there maybe it might be a bit more interesting, but it still seems to be the same old cake.
And where the hell did I craft that metaphor from??? I think my metaphorical circut must be broke, like a glade plug-in thats out of gel...yup sounds broken. Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: El Gallo on January 11, 2005, 02:14:03 PM Maybe you are just hungry?
Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: AlteredOne on January 11, 2005, 02:24:33 PM Quote from: El Gallo Maybe you are just hungry? Reminds me, one time I got in a bad bike accident, and had to go to the hospital with a head injury. The doctor checked me out, decided to do an MRI because I was shaking uncontrollably. So my wife shows up and said "Could you give him a snack? I think he has low blood sugar because he hasn't eaten for 10 hours." What do you know, they gave me a few crackers, and I was fine. Amazing how fast a face can heal, with no scars. Anyway, this all reminds me of corpse recoveries on failed plane raids in EQ1. And how quickly my social life healed, when I quit EQ. Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: toma levine on January 11, 2005, 02:24:58 PM Quote ultimate, unending battle Does this strike anyone else as some sort of oxymoron? Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: Paelos on January 11, 2005, 02:28:02 PM Depends on if your definition of the word ultimate includes the word futile.
Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: geldonyetich on January 11, 2005, 04:25:22 PM It almost makes me want to resubscribe and earn the 60 or so levels needed to enjoy the new content!
Eh, but FFXI is really the better Everquest. Title: Re: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: eldaec on January 12, 2005, 02:59:57 AM Quote * Mass Corpse Summoning Altar - Allows guilds to summon guild corpses en masse to the altar room. About time. Corpse runs are the very shittiest of shitty death penalties. While only choosing to remove them for large guilds is the incorrect decision, this move will hopefully lead eventually to public altars. Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: Trippy on January 12, 2005, 04:53:55 AM GameSpot has some pictures up of this new expansion. Things sure look a lot different than when I played:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/01/11/news_6116122.html Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: Soukyan on January 12, 2005, 05:25:16 AM Quote from: Trippy GameSpot has some pictures up of this new expansion. Things sure look a lot different than when I played: http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/01/11/news_6116122.html Do not be fooled by the "purdy" dragon mobs centered in the screenshot. Take a look at the grass and sand textures at a closer view range and you will see that they are the same shitty texture resolution that they've always been (okay, maybe since Luclin at least). The same goes for most other textures in the game. The thing about EQ now is that it looks much better in still pictures, not to mention the fact that most people can't even play it at the quality level of the screenshots because of shitty PCs or because of the shitty graphics engine that's been sewn together over the years. Heh. Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: Merusk on January 12, 2005, 05:28:12 AM Quote from: Trippy GameSpot has some pictures up of this new expansion. Things sure look a lot different than when I played: http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/01/11/news_6116122.html Oooh, Asian Shiny a la UO. Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: LordDax on January 12, 2005, 06:16:47 AM Quote from: Soukyan The thing about EQ now is that it looks much better in still pictures, not to mention the fact that most people can't even play it at the quality level of the screenshots because of shitty PCs or because of the shitty graphics engine that's been sewn together over the years. Heh. Truer words were never spoken...alas poor hopes of high resolution and superb texture mappings are always dashed upon the hard rocky cliffs of end user gfx cards and engine ignorance. ::sniffle:: Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: Righ on January 12, 2005, 06:48:29 AM Quote from: LordDax alas poor hopes of high resolution and superb texture mappings are always dashed upon the hard rocky cliffs of end user gfx cards and engine ignorance. Wow, that was pretty original imagery. Perhaps you ought to be poet laureate. Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: LordDax on January 12, 2005, 09:18:56 AM Heh. My state no longer has to position because of a controversial poem he wrote on 9/11. He bombed out when talking about bombing, I guess.
Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: HaemishM on January 12, 2005, 12:07:28 PM Wow, guild features I requested as a guild leader in 2001? That SOE team, responsive as ever!
Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: Viin on January 12, 2005, 01:18:37 PM Quote from: HaemishM Wow, guild features I requested as a guild leader in 2001? That SOE team, responsive as ever! You expected them to listen? Bad noob! Bad! No cookie! Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: Xilren's Twin on January 12, 2005, 02:07:37 PM Quote from: LordDax Heh. My state no longer has to position because of a controversial poem he wrote on 9/11. He bombed out when talking about bombing, I guess. Does that mean you're from New Jersey? So, when's that mafia based mmorpg coming out? Xilren Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: LordDax on January 12, 2005, 05:04:40 PM Eh you know how it is in the gritty underbelly. The game will come out when the Don says its ready to come out, see? Not a second before, not a second later, see?
Title: PR: Uhm, another EQ Expansion Post by: Trippy on January 12, 2005, 06:59:05 PM Quote from: Soukyan Do not be fooled by the "purdy" dragon mobs centered in the screenshot. Take a look at the grass and sand textures at a closer view range and you will see that they are the same shitty texture resolution that they've always been (okay, maybe since Luclin at least). The same goes for most other textures in the game. The thing about EQ now is that it looks much better in still pictures, not to mention the fact that most people can't even play it at the quality level of the screenshots because of shitty PCs or because of the shitty graphics engine that's been sewn together over the years. Heh. Yeah I agree the textures are nothing special. I was referring more to "teh shiney" -- things like shadowing, more realistic lighting, better trees, water effects, and it looks like they may be doing bump mapping now as well (though it's hard to tell from screenshots, they could just be baked into the texture). |