Next Expansion: Rise of Kunark

[Ixxit]

Rise of Kunark Description:

Adventure through the mystifying continent of Kunark as the new player race – The Mysterious Sarnak- and discover a world full of intrigue and danger. Engage in all-new epic quests as you embark on a crusade to reveal the truth and uncover artifacts of the obscure Sarnak history. Experience the lush, nostalgic continent of Kunark and begin your courageous path from the new starting city in Timorous Deep.

Rise of Kunark is the fourth expansion pack for the critically acclaimed EverQuest II franchise. The introduction of the new playable race – The Sarnak – and new starting point- Timorous Deep- Rise of Kunark provides a full range of content for new player’s levels 1-20 as well as advanced, high level players whom can now achieve up to level 80 in high level zones, both increasing their Adventure and Tradeskill classes. Rise of Kunark includes 13 new highly detailed zones, over 350 new exotic quests, 36 new deviant NPCs, 24 brand new Epic Weapon quests and fabled armor sets.

Feature Set:

All-New Player Race – Battle as the puzzling Sarnak – the new dragon-like humanoid creature that inhabits Timorous Deep.

New Starting Area – Begin your mystic adventure from the new starting area in the lush jungle islands of Timorous Deep. Conclude your day of epic quests and retire to new player housing within the Village of Gorowyn.

Over 350 New Quests – Continue your exotic quests throughout Norrath with challenging adventures and encounters for all player levels.

More Weapons & Armor – 24 brand new Epic Weapon quests for all 24 classes. Battle through your hostile opposition and acquire additional fabled and legendary armor sets.

New Mount – Explore the world on the shoulders of a new rampaging beast - The Kunarkian Rhinoceros.

More Unique Zones – Advance your way through 13 new, highly detailed zones filled with nostalgia and danger such as the Kylong Plains, Fens of Nathsar, Kunzar Jungle and Jarsath Wastes.

New Deities – Three new belief systems added to the world of Norrath.

36 New NPCs – Encounter and engage a wide variety of new deviant enemies that inhabit the menacing lands of Kunark.

Level Cap Raised – Expand your achievements as a solo player or as a guild and progress Adventure and Tradeskill classes to level 80.

Advanced Mapping System - New full-screen detailed maps and a smaller, always-up mini-map.

http://eq2.allakhazam.com/news/sdetail9504.html?story=9504



Damn....

[tazelbain]

Yikes, as if they they needed even more landmass to spread players out. The game seriously needs a summons totem or some such.

[shiznitz]

In the Hartsman interview at your link he mentioned that they are doing huge zones with mini-zoning. Sounds an awful lot like the VG chunk idea.

Th new starting race is the Sarnaks in Timourous Deep. 

He specifically said that the Ragefire/Hate stone campfest in EQ1 for epics is NOT what they are going for and that raiding will not be necessary.

Guild level cap raised to 80 as well.

[Merusk]

The Sarnak? Really?  Bad choice, IMO, because they're going to look really goofy in the EQ2 one-body style.  Sarnak were pretty damn cool as the ultra-tall, lanky dragon-men of EQ.  Now they'll be pudgy ex-wrestlers with awkward mashed-in pug-dog faces.   

[Engels]

Well, I'm withholding judgement on wether Sarnaks are good playable race. IF they resemble the EQ sarnaks in both graphics and stupidity of their mindlessly violent culture, they got a problem :)

[Sauced]

Well, if you listen to the Hartsman interview, they are still developing the Sarnak models.  My guess is that the cat was already out of the bag, people knew Kunark was the expansion ( domain registration ) and were guessing that Sarnaks would be the race.  This is just confirmation, plus the news that the cap is going to 70.  And non-raid Epics.  Yay, I might get one this time.  I'm gonna hold out hope that they are going to stick to their guns on not spending a massive amount of time building theh Epic weapon content that will only be available to a fraction of the player base.

[shiznitz]

Adventuring, Crafting and Guild level cap - currently 70, 70 and 60 - moving to 80.

I expect the initial epic quests to be like a Heritage Quest in scope and result in a Legendary item. Then, apparently, one will be able to upgrade their epic through more quests that will require grouping, but not raiding.

[Surlyboi]

Sarnaks? I was waiting for them in EQ1.

They do 'em right, sign my ass up.

[Nonentity]

Sarnak were awesome.

Man, I have the biggest soft spot for this game, and I remember it very fondly, but every time I go back to it, it's never the same as I remember it.

What to do, what to do...

Then again, last time I played to a decent degree was pre-expansion. Any of them. No, wait - no big expansion. I had, like... the gnoll adventure pack.

[Furiously]

I'm not too keen on the level cap going up again.

[jpark]

Thanks for the post.  I continue to watch EQ2 but I am not encouraged so far.

Yup - what this game needed was a new zone(s) and a new race 

[shiznitz]

Thanks for the post.  I continue to watch EQ2 but I am not encouraged so far.

Yup - what this game needed was a new zone(s) and a new race 

Ok, what does it need? The gameplay works. Sure, not everyone loves it but it works. Once the devs get to that point, content is the name of the game. It's an MMO. The devs either revamp old zones or add new ones. There aren't a lot of options.

[Surlyboi]

Thanks for the post.  I continue to watch EQ2 but I am not encouraged so far.

Yup - what this game needed was a new zone(s) and a new race 

Ok, what does it need? The gameplay works. Sure, not everyone loves it but it works. Once the devs get to that point, content is the name of the game. It's an MMO. The devs either revamp old zones or add new ones. There aren't a lot of options.

For him to play, it needs to have some sort of crusade. Preferably engulfed in flames of some sort.

And it needs to be made by Blizzard.

[jpark]

Because the only games I play are by Blizzard!

Comments on areas for improvement have been covered in other threads here.

In brief:  EQ avatar shapes preferred to many of the EQ2 versions of the same races; avatar kinetics is often painful to watch (e.g. jumping); the pvp "system"; lackl luster armor / weapon variety and appearances; fewere spells / abilities, but with more impact and meaning in combat.

As an aside - languages had more meaning in EQ than EQ2 if I recall correctly.  I always enjoyed learning new languages in EQ - it was trivialized eventually as learning new languages was made much faster.  I am not aware of any similar mechanic in EQ2.  In EQ we had some guild events where we just got together and taught each other languages we had picked up.  It was a nice diversion from raiding.

Some efforts at zone immersion would help.  I never liked the click on the bell and you appear somewhere else system.  I would have been cool to board a gondola just for a short ride before zoning somewhere.  It's all the little things that in retrospect - can be done to tweak the appeal of zones.  But these guys never seem to go back.  I understand rogues can now climb walls in EQ2 - but only in the "new" zones for that expansion - not retroactivaly to all the older zones. 

[UD_Delt]

Because the only games I play are by Blizzard!

Comments on areas for improvement have been covered in other threads here.

In brief:  EQ avatar shapes preferred to many of the EQ2 versions of the same races; avatar kinetics is often painful to watch (e.g. jumping); the pvp "system"; lackl luster armor / weapon variety and appearances; fewere spells / abilities, but with more impact and meaning in combat.

As an aside - languages had more meaning in EQ than EQ2 if I recall correctly.  I always enjoyed learning new languages in EQ - it was trivialized eventually as learning new languages was made much faster.  I am not aware of any similar mechanic in EQ2.  In EQ we had some guild events where we just got together and taught each other languages we had picked up.  It was a nice diversion from raiding.

Some efforts at zone immersion would help.  I never liked the click on the bell and you appear somewhere else system.  I would have been cool to board a gondola just for a short ride before zoning somewhere.  It's all the little things that in retrospect - can be done to tweak the appeal of zones.  But these guys never seem to go back.  I understand rogues can now climb walls in EQ2 - but only in the "new" zones for that expansion - not retroactivaly to all the older zones. 

There are languages in EQ2 as well. Some, like the starting race are as simple as stopping into each starting village and buying a language scroll. Others like orc or goblin are scroll drop quests, and others yet such as Dragon are lengthy quests that are precursors to other quests.

The Fae expansion does require a boat ride. And originally boat rides were needed initially as part of access quests to use the bell but those were taken out. I personally hated the boat rides of EQ. After the first time it's just an unecessary time sink. But to each their own.

And all classes can climb walls in the new expansions. I guess for the old zones they would have to go back and redesign everything to put climbable areas in somewhere but personally I'd prefer new content.

[Bandit]

EQ2 could offer free hand-jobs and JPark would pipe up and claim, "SOE's handjobs are lacklustre, they are too fast and don't use enough lube....if Blizzard had handjobs they take their time and would have much more polish"

[jpark]

EQ2 could offer free hand-jobs and JPark would pipe up and claim, "SOE's handjobs are lacklustre, they are too fast and don't use enough lube....if Blizzard had handjobs they take their time and would have much more polish"

You guys brought up blizzard I did not. 

* hug *

CoH and LOTR are also great games in my mind.  Coh did an outstanding job in many regards.

We are just talking about feature directions guys.  EQ2 is moving in the same predictable manner they seemed to work with EQ - a patchwork of zone expansions - with features not shared by older zones - giving the user a dislocated feeling this is a game not a "world".  Maybe this is the best way to go for business development - focus on the existing user base - forfeiting efforts to expand your target market. 

Languages in EQ2 - The whole idea of "teaching" other players I thought was a great element of EQ - a small detail that added to the game.  It's really too bad it's not part of EQ2.

As I have said before - avatars for example - a lot of people do not like them - and actually would prefer the avatar inspirations from EQ itself.  But Hartsman indicated there were significant cost issues here - the art revamp - and that the resources were not there to address this.  To me that was tacit admission that the inspirations for many of the current avarts in EQ2 is understood to have missed the mark. 

What am I looking for?  I think I am looking for some of these features to be addressed - rather than laying new zones and new races.  That's why I continue to watch - because ironically - much of this discussion for me is about importing more traditions from EQ - to make EQ2 more appealing to me (but not all etc. - so EQ is not an option for me).

[Signe]

No way I'm getting all excited about some expansion that's probably coming out at, like, Xmas or sommat.  Sometimes I wish they would just shut up until a week or so before it ships.

[Surlyboi]

You guys brought up blizzard I did not.

Only because we cut you off at the pass. Over a long enough stretch of time you will no doubt compare EQ2 to your current MMO hard-on. You've done it without fail in the past.

That said, I could lay out a litany of problems I have with LoTR and CoH, but I choose not to go to those forums and do so; because despite my reservations about both games, I will still play them from time to time until I tire of those problems breaking my immersion and I choose to play something else.

[Numtini]

Oh FFS, they have two complete sets of avatars. There's something for everyone.

[Simond]

Another interview, with an explanation about the superzones plus some interesting stuff about the post-launch development of the game:

May 21, 2007

Q&A: What's The Future For EverQuest II?
 In person, Scott Hartsman is an enthusiastic gentleman, talking a mile a minute about his passion: Sony Online Entertainment's PC MMO EverQuest II. Mr. Hartsman joined the team as producer three years, ago, in the wake of the title's somewhat slow launch.

Why the sluggish start? Up against the firestorm that is World of Warcraft, and by Hartsman's own admission laboring under a flawed vision of who would be playing the game, EverQuest II struggled in its first year of live service following its November 2004 launch. Since then, under the direction of Hartsman and people like now-departed lead designer Jason Roberts, the game has fundamentally changed in an effort to recapture the enthusiasm of past and current EverQuest players.

His enthusiasm was mixed with blunt honesty when Gamasutra spoke to him at the recent Sony Online Entertainment Gamers Day event. In a series of conversations over the course of the evening, he shared the reasons behind EQ2's rocky start, the philosophy that turned the team around, and the results of having a longer development cycle for game expansions.

Restoring The Fun Factor?

At some point after EverQuest II launched, the team looked up and said, "We are not having fun." The people on the team weren't playing the game and, according to Mr. Hartsman, "That's the kiss of death.".

For various reasons, the design standpoint when the game was first created was "we can't steal from EverQuest". The game's goal was to move as far away from EQ as they could, to attract new players while leaving the EQ player base more-or-less intact. That resulted in, essentially, a generic fantasy MMOG with some very strange design decisions.

For example, there was a lot of interest in controlling the player's experience, making sure that everyone at X level was exactly the same in a number of ways. This resulted in a feeling of sameness, and not a lot of enthusiasm for grouping. That was a particularly bad cycle, as the game was also absolutely brutal about solo play. "I think when the game first came out I leveled a character up to about 13 or 14 before I threw my hands up and said 'done!'"

That's just one example of a design structure that promoted frustration. There were several elements that fed off of each other: the locked encounter system, the initial class system that had players choosing their final class quite a ways into the game. "When your designers aren't playing your game, that means something is deeply, deeply wrong", Hartsman said - but took pains to point out that no one person or group of persons was responsible for the game at launch.

Morphing Into Something To Be Proud Of?

He explained: "The understanding behind the product was perfectly valid... it just missed the mark. So the initiative became, 'let's make this into a game we want to play.' The result is a title that everyone on the team plays quite a bit, apparently. Mr. Hartsman noted that several of his colleagues run guilds, and two in particular are regularly leading raids and unlocking new content in-game. "That's the sign that you're doing things right."

Scott Hartsman is bullish on the title as it currently stands: "If I didn't think that EverQuest II was worth working on, I wouldn't be working on the game, bluntly. I'm one of those people who needs to be truly into what it is that he's doing. I wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't. This game, when it launched, did not have a lot of things that would be required to pull in a sufficient EverQuest-friendly audience. It has in the last three years become that game."

He continued: "Between our studio and the Taiwan studio we've probably had a hundred and fifty to a hundred and seventy five people work on this game. Every 'generation' of developers has gotten the game better and better and better. If it was just us saying it, it would be one thing. It's reflected in our better review scores. It's rare for review scores to go up over time, especially an MMO. Usually your game launches, you have a review score, and then all of your review scores kind of dance around, maybe go down. Ours actually trend upward for each new expansion... This franchise is improving in value. To us, that means that this game could go on for another ten years."

Free, Pay Content To Up The EQ2 Ante

When he wasn't discussing the game's past, last week Mr. Hartsman was explaining the new Neriak and Darklight Woods areas of EverQuest II. These zones are free content created by the SOE-Taiwan, the Soga studio, and will be patched into the game at no cost to the player later this month. Along with the two new zones, the darkly 'emo' Arasai faerie race will be added to the roster of evil races.

Mr. Hartsman grinned widely as he described the collaboration process between SOE-San Diego and their foreign coworkers, navigating a floating Arasai though the Dark Elf city of Neriak. The visual style and audio environment were specifically designed to evoke the city from the original EverQuest, and onlookers were treated to a number of examples of how the 'old is new again' in the upcoming publish.

While content from the upcoming expansion Rise of Kunark wasn't available to see that evening, Mr. Hartsman was no less excited about that project. The culmination of a shift in thinking at Sony Online Entertainment, Rise of Kunark will be the first EQ2 expansion given a full 12 months to gestate before being released.

EQ2's previous expansion, Echoes of Faydwer, was the testbed for the company's policy change. Success both critically and with the player base sent a clear message to the company: take the time to do things right, and bring back the EverQuest-ness to EQ2. When the idea for the expansion was being bandied around, Mr. Hartsman was still reluctant to go directly for a 'spiritual sequel'. He consulted the game's staff on the matter, as several of them had worked on the original expansion for EverQuest. The response was overwhelming: let's do this the way we wanted to do it back then.

Hartsman explained: "We have a fixed amount of time to do a thing, where a thing is the expansion. They set the amount of time, they set my staff levels. My team sets what it is that we can accomplish thats going to be fun and polished in that span of time. As long as we can control one variable, we can win the game. And so, what we really do is we plan to have as much fun and quality stuff as we can in there."

He continued: "In this case, we have enough time to do ten more levels of content, probably four or five hundred quests, we have enough time to do a full compliment of collection quests. That's a huge thing for EQ2 players, people love collections. And we have time to do a brand new race. So we're doing the Sarnak as a playable race. In there, we also have a little bit of time left over to do some R&D. And the nice thing about expansion cycles that last a whole year is that you get experimentation time. Whereas, if you have a six month cycle you have to go with what you know works. There is no tripping. If you trip, you miss your date."

But what's changing? "In our case, our big experimentation this time is the concept of having 'superzones'. I don't want to make them sound cheesy, but they're gigantic regions. You could place two, three, or four older EQ2 zones, outdoor zones, and make them as distinct areas inside this one all-encompassing zone. We're going to have a few of these regions out there, and then each of those regions will have a few zones inside them. What that lets us do is make an expansion where there is less zoning. We're going to have zone names that sound a little foreign to people. "The Jarsath Wastes", "The Kylon Plains" - that kind of thing. Inside of those areas, you'll see Skyfire Mountains, you'll see the Dread Lands, the Lake of Ill Omen. And so those will be full zone-sized areas inside these much larger areas. You can go back and forth and not have to be worrying about zoning the whole time."

Conclusion - More Care, More Of The Time

Indeed, in Gamasutra's recent interview with John Smedley, the SOE president explained the major change in attitude affecting EverQuest II: "The teams have their heads down, they're working hard, and we're learning from past mistakes. In the case of EverQuest II, it's still a very very healthy business for us. In terms of getting it in the public eye, that's the purpose of the free updates; we're trying to target several large-scale free things to add to the world."

Smedley concluded: "We want people to know that we're not just slamming out expansion packs. I think that was a mistaken strategy that we had for a while. It decreased our quality level. The teams, and myself included, just get to the point where you want to be super proud of what you're releasing, and we wanted more time to polish things, and so we said 'the heck with it' and went with it that way." How will this considered approach pay off in terms of buzz and increased subscriptions? Only time will tell.

 

[Sky]

I've said it many times...the folks working on EQ2 should be the model for a Live Team. Sure, WoW has the meganumbers, but the EQ2 live team has turned around a mediocre to crappy game (I quit at level sixteen trying to solo originally) and turned it into arguably the best mmo out there. Certainly my favorite, though I still have reservations on some systems and group-only content blocking solo play (C'mon...Blackburrow is group-only? Bah).

Hopefully by the time I get back to EQ2 in October, all the vets will be done plundering Neriak so I can get in there without too much hassle (lag/crowding) :)

[Furiously]

I just re-subbed and started a mystic on AB. Was surprised to find a few people I used to play with on.

[Sauced]

Hartsman interview from E3 here.

Looks great, you know, for being shitty EQ2 graphics. 

[Surlyboi]

There's nothing wrong with EQ2s graphics, never have been.

Art direction? Sure. But the graphics aren't bad at all.

[Sauced]

Sarchasm alert!

[Grand Design]

Chardok and Sebelis?  Much love.  Maybe I'll get to use my walk-underwater spell finally!

If they reincarnate Howling Stones and Veksar, I will be in heaven.

[Surlyboi]

Sarchasm alert!

Oh noes! And I fell in.

I'm just so used to defending the graphics from WoWheads like JPark, that I sometimes miss the sarcasm.

[Murgos]

I like that Hartsman kept repeating, "Hey, dungeons don't have to be plain rock!"

Now, if we can get them to look at the rest of the environment that way...  How about we make some rules of MMO development?  Something like each MMO is allowed to have one (1) bare rock cliff face of either gray or brown provided that it is kept mostly out of sight or you may include dirt roads into your design but they must be bordered by something other than more dirt.

[Sky]

Hartsman is my hero.

Dynamic combat music? Yes.
Instancing that can be broken down into chunks? Hell yes.
"Improved reveals"? Oh H to the E to the double-L to the yes.

I'd probably end up rolling a Sarnak and just levelling another character to 30 :P Veeshan's Peak, I didn't even get to see that one in original EQ iirc. Haaated Chardok originally, those mobs hit hard and it was all but impossible to solo in there at lvl 54. My guild did several weekends in Chardok preparing to work down to the Royals for the necro epic, I was the first necro to get to that point in the guild...then they handed it to their friend who never showed up to guild events instead. Reason #3 I quit EQ and reason #1 I don't join guilds.

Graphics look great, they're really taking criticism properly and addressing some of the poor art direction and really making the most of the engine. And that engine is really starting to shine, it looks great with my 8800, though it can still chug a bit more than that demo did. Then again, I mostly chug when there are lots of players around, so that could be the difference.

Can't wait for autumn and EQ2 season! All this new content (I'm still only partway through any particular content focus original/faydwer/neriak!) is stymying my plans to eventually play my twinked out necromancer...after I get my wizard and shadowknight to at least lvl 50...so next decade...

[Nija]

Chardok and Sebelis?  Much love.  Maybe I'll get to use my walk-underwater spell finally!

If they reincarnate Howling Stones and Veksar, I will be in heaven.

Mystics have a walk underwater spell. When you jump, you fly up to the surface of the water. It's pretty much the best spell in the game.

[tazelbain]

My interest in this expansion is muted by my dread of having more zones in the middle nowhere and hours of running to said zones.

Travel is a huge pain.  Everything was cool when it was off the docks in TS/Nek.  In the 50s, everything is spread all over the fraking place.  So in addition to the painfully long time to find enough people, there is an 20min hump to get them together.  Its not usual to spend an hour looking/waiting for people in a group that only lasts 2 hours.

[Engels]

My biggest beef with EQ2 was the 'theme parkiness' of the zones. I always felt 'guided' through specific tailor made routes through 'approved corridors'. I'm wondering if with these new zones they will allow for more player independence in their ability to discover the zone on their own terms.

[tazelbain]

Never heard that one before.

[Murgos]

I don't know, maybe it's an issue with some of the higher level zones but Nektulous, Thundering Steppes, Enchanted Lands, Zek, Feerot and, recently, Sinking Sands share none of that feeling for me and that gets you from 20-55, the vast majority of the game, in pretty good order.  They all are more of a 'wander around and find cool little pockets' thing than any sort of guided tour.  I'll admit to the new newbie zones being very guided but I think that's a good thing for your first 10 levels or so.

The instance dungeons are pretty linear but that's actually a 'good thing' as it allows for strong story telling.