Kingdom of Sky

[Shockeye]

Join Hundreds of Thousands of People Online in EverQuest(R) II With Kingdom of Sky(TM)

Tuesday January 3, 3:00 pm ET 

Evil Dragons and Player Versus Player Combat Unveiled for EverQuest II

SAN DIEGO, Calif., Jan. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE), a global leader in the online games industry, today announced that the second expansion for EverQuest® II, entitled Kingdom of Sky(TM), is scheduled to be available at retail and for download on Feb. 21. The retail SKU of Kingdom of Sky will sell at the recommended price of $29.99 and contains the full version of the base EverQuest II game, the new expansion and a special in-game item. The digital version will contain the new expansion for $26.99.
 
"Kingdom of Sky offers something for all of our EverQuest II players," said Laura Naviaux, senior brand marketing manager, Sony Online Entertainment. "For the seasoned EQII player, Kingdom of Sky increases the amount of high level content in a world filled with intrigue and the potential destruction of Norrath by the evil dragon lords. The second expansion pack brings the excitement of dragon battles and is timed to coincide with the newly-added Player vs. Player (PvP) action."

Kingdom of Sky pushes the boundaries of character development and adventure to new heights. An entirely new form of advancement introduces a structured Achievement system of skills and abilities to further specialize and individualize your character, while level caps for characters, artisans and guilds are all increased. Kingdom of Sky expands the arena challenges with four deadly new arena champions and two new arena zones. Ten new adventure zones, from lush jungles to temples of unimaginable splendor, 25 new enemies and troves full of new treasures all open up fresh game play and visual experiences within the online world of EverQuest II.

Player versus Player combat will "go live" in EverQuest II near the time of the launch of Kingdom of Sky, a highly anticipated addition to the game that will allow players to fight each other. PvP will be a part of the regular updates that take place within the game world, and will be available to all EQII players for no additional cost. PvP will feature good versus evil combat, pitting citizens of the two rival cities of Qeynos and Freeport against each other. Players will earn items, titles, fame and experience while engaged in combat with other online gamers around the globe. Combat will happen in the wild or within the gates of your opponent's city. PvP will be activated on new servers so all players will be able to compete from the ground up.

About Kingdom of Sky

High above the mightiest peaks of Norrath, a secret world exists. This Overrealm, made up of enormous islands of land suspended in the air, is home to aviaks and creatures never-before seen, but it is the splintered and warring dragons who rule it. Driven by their lust for power, religious zealotry, and all-consuming rage, the most ancient of the world's creatures now find common cause in a plot to destroy all of Norrath! Populated by dragons, aviaks, and other new creatures never before seen in EverQuest II, all eyes turn toward this new realm -- even those of the mighty dragon Lord Nagafen!

    Features:

    *  Higher level advancement -- now reach level 70 as an adventurer or
       artisan

    *  All-new Achievement system to further enhance and specialize your
       character's abilities

    *  Guild advancement expanded to level 50

    *  Four new arena champions and two new arenas

    *  All new Heritage Quests allow players to gain amazingly powerful items,
       personal status, adventure experience and even a reward made famous in
       the original EverQuest

    *  Signature Quests which reward large experience bonuses, personal
       status, new items, and advance the lore of EverQuest II

    *  Over 30 new Collections expand upon one of the most popular features
       exclusive to EverQuest II.  Find them all and earn all new rewards

    *  Challenging new zones, from floating islands to menacing dungeons

    *  25 new enemies to fight

    *  Brand new pieces of armor, such as Profession Hats, Helmets and
       Pauldrons, will make your character look more distinct

    *  Over 30 new items to put in your player house

    *  All new player titles

    For more information, visit http://www.kingdomofsky.com

[Cheddar]

Joy!  This is like a waking wet dream.

It looks like they are listening to the playerbase and adapting to fit what the subscribers would like.  This is a revolutionary step in the MMOG world!




edit.  added more love.

[Lt.Dan]

For a rogue you mean - nothing like stealth, movement buff, and big damage opening combat attacks ;)

Of course, for a mage it's looking good too - invis, stun, mezz, and big damage spells :)

[MrHat]

Invis?

*rolls a mage*

[Cheddar]

Invis?

*rolls a mage*

Yes, mages get a decent inviz spell.  My rat used it a lot!

[schild]

Hm. Level 70. I hate that shit.

[Viin]

I like how they've basically said the base game is only worth $3 now.

[schild]

Actually, if you do the math on the levels and amount of content - that's the expansion that's worth $3. Which is about what I'd pay for most expansions if all they're going to add is content for levels I'll never see and an ingame item.

[Velorath]

Is it just me or does "25 new enemies to fight" really not sound very impressive?

[Alkiera]

Is it just me or does "25 new enemies to fight" really not sound very impressive?

I'd rather they do that than say 'Hundreds of new enemies!' only to find there are 25 new models, with 4 palette-swapped textures and 2 sizes to make 200.  You know, kinda like DAoC at release.

Alkiera

[Mesozoic]

February 21 seems really fast.  I'm sure they're been working on it for a while at least, but 2 paid expansions in 16 months seems like shovelware.  Especially when adding a major component like pvp.

[Murgos]

Well, now we know why the armor and character models still look like ass.  All thier artists have been building content for 2 expansions.

[schild]

While the art isn't exactly what I'd want from a game, there are some things I like a lot, some areas are crafted with exquisite care. That said, I've seen nothing from the EQ2 dev team I would call shovelware. They release patches and updates and changes with the utmost precision and are by far the least offensive live team I've had experience with to date. EQ2, since launch, has been (on a purely technical level) a smooth ride and while I could write up a list of 100 changes I'd like to see made and that would make sense, not a one of them would be due to programmer retardation.

[UD_Delt]

February 21 seems really fast.  I'm sure they're been working on it for a while at least, but 2 paid expansions in 16 months seems like shovelware.  Especially when adding a major component like pvp.

I'm wondering what happened to adventure packs? We had 2 cheaper adventure packs (Bloodline & Splitpaw) then a full expansion (DOF), now another full expansion before any more adventure packs?

Have the $5-$10 adventure packs been scrapped altogether in favor of just doing the regular expansion cycle now?

I'd personally rather see another Splitpaw than another DOF.

[Sky]

PvP will be a part of the regular updates that take place within the game world, and will be available to all EQII players for no additional cost.

Heh.

[tazelbain]

If someone could convince me that PvP isn't crap in the game, I might be convinced to play the game.  But as it looks, mudflation would rape any new player that steps on the field and I am not going to grid through 70 levels plus a couple dozen AA points to get to decent fight.

[schild]

EQ2 has AA points?

[tazelbain]

I don't know.

*  All-new Achievement system to further enhance and specialize your character's abilities

My mind translated that to AA points.  Whatever it is, you need to do it to have a competive character, like DaOC and EQ.

EDIT: need'll... wtf?

[schild]

I'd like Hartsman to clear this up. If it's anything like AA points or some sort of catass grind achievement thing, I'm walking and will encourage others to do the same.

[Shockeye]

Pictures

[schild]

I've always been a whore for floating islands. /oldtabularasa

Unfortunately, I need to hear more about this achievement shit.

[UD_Delt]

Last I heard was it was supposed to be similar to AA's but not an exact copy of the system. I'm also curious as to how it will work but my guess is you aren't going to be happy with it Schild.

My guess is it will be an exp grind extension. It gives people something else to do once they hit 70. One of the problems right now is that people at 60 don't have anything to do so they will add an achievement system to extend the grind.

[Murgos]

Also, there are a LOT of complaints about character diversity.  The achievement thing is supposed to help address that.  I'm guessing lots of grinding for only minor differentation (anything major would be a balance nono, of course).

[Sky]

If it's anything like AA points or some sort of catass grind achievement thing, I'm walking and will encourage others to do the same.

You do realize it's EQ2. An mmo.

Besides, you'll be walking soon anyway.

Best expansion name EVARD: Bow before King Sky!

[shiznitz]

I dinged 49 last night and am kind of bummed that all of my 55-60 guildmates are going to be too high to group with again. We haven't even done any old world raid zones because we can field one group of 50-60s, then me, then a bunch in the 30s.

BTW, EQ2 Permafrost is a cool zone but I liked the EQ1 version better. You really need to be 40+ to see the cool stuff in EQ2. The good news is that it is easier than ever to get to 40.

[schild]

The last few nights I've realized that you're pretty much always on double experience. That, in addition to the increase in quest experience is making the game feel like a cakewalk. Also, the market is so broken that nooblers can make money. My roommate sold a fucking level 15 collectibe quest item for 15 gold. Seriously. Broken.

[UD_Delt]

The last few nights I've realized that you're pretty much always on double experience. That, in addition to the increase in quest experience is making the game feel like a cakewalk.

Hmm... I've found the opposite so far. I seem to burn throug vitality like nothing. Then again I've had great luck in groups since I started playing a healer. I've typically been the lowest level in the group providing heals while everyone else is taking out mobs orange and red to me. In a decent group like this I'll gain 2-3 (w/ vitality) levels in about 2 hours and burn through all available vitality leaving me with nothing unless I don't play for at least 3-4 days. Usually I'll continue without vitality and just end up leveling half as fast which I still consider a level every 2 hours a decent pace.

I started my Warden a day or two before Christmas and I'm currently level 26. I believe /played time is around 24-25 hours which includes the time spent soloing various lower quests and keeping harvesting skills up to par.

[schild]

Odd. My vitality drops to .1% but never disappears completely. Maybe it's a bug. It's a bug I like. My /played time is like 30 hours and I'm only level 17. I should quest more.

[Cheddar]

I have 3 days, 12 hours logged.  Course I am famous for going AFK and not coming back for a day.  Also I have been working crafting as well; Level 22 Swashbuckler/20 Armorer.

[UD_Delt]

I should quest more.

I would counter with, you should never not quest. If that makes sense...

If you spend any time solo it should always be spent on one quest or another. The only time I'm not questing is when I'm in a group that is doing very well working together.

It will be a bit easier to do that once you hit level 19/20 as I think right now I have 28 active quests in Thundering Steppes and have completed at least 14 or so. There's no point in killing anything in that zone unless you have a quest for it. I think in Antonica i only completed 24 or so overall.

At 17 I would head to Windstalker village and pick up all the quests there. They range in level from 15-26 and a good number of them are soloable.

[Signe]

I wander off AFK a lot, too... sorry. 

Do the GiggleThingy Frostfell Quest!  It's fun and gave me 2 levels.  It scales to your level, too, so when I turned 17, the mobs in Elvin Wonderland turned 17, too.  I also got a HUGE Freeport snow globe and a cool Santa hat.  The snow globe really is HUGE... it takes up my whole table.   

[shiznitz]

And do it soon. Update #19 will remove the Frostfell stuff.

[Murgos]

I wander off AFK a lot, too... sorry. 

Do the GiggleThingy Frostfell Quest!  It's fun and gave me 2 levels.  It scales to your level, too, so when I turned 17, the mobs in Elvin Wonderland turned 17, too.  I also got a HUGE Freeport snow globe and a cool Santa hat.  The snow globe really is HUGE... it takes up my whole table.   

I want to play just to get a giant snow globe, is that wrong?

[Signe]

No, it's not wrong.  I'm sure you have your reasons for wanting a HUGE snow globe.

[Hartsman]

Odd. My vitality drops to .1% but never disappears completely. Maybe it's a bug. It's a bug I like. My /played time is like 30 hours and I'm only level 17. I should quest more.

You should definitely quest more.  The XP from rewards is noticeable and and doesn't chew vitality.  Hour for hour, you're earning a lot faster, even with travel/return time.

If you haven't started the antonica or CL quest paths, start it.  Seriously.  


On Achievements --

I haven't made any official posts yet on our boards, so I'm not going to get into too much detail here just yet.

That said, our idea was to make something that's fun and rewarding that people would ideally be earning as they achieved certain things (hence the name) in the existing process of levelling up.  It would begin around level 20, giving people interesting choices to make regarding which direction to grow/specialize their character.   Some of it does involve amounts of experience earned, others of it involves quests, yet others being notable opponents defeated.

These are choices - Meaning, you can't just earn forever to get all of them.  (Conversely, a lot of people find that kind of system extremely satisfying, as EQ has shown. One man's Grind being another man's Growth, and all, but in the end it would cause too many balance and accessibility problems for EQ2.)

Someone who's already at the level cap the day that the system comes out will have to start earning them at that point.  From that point of view, there is time investment required to get their Achievements caught up with their level.  However, those are the same folk who more than likely have the largest interest in spending time to grow new abilities.

No one has a system exactly like it, and we designed it trying to take into account what's has and hasn't worked elsewhere.  Hopefully it works out well.   I know I'm looking forward to playing it.

- Scott

Edit: 10 -> 20, because "1" and "2" are too close to each other on the keyboard for someone typing w/o coffee.