EverQuest Next Community Updates and Previews
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First, we start off on the official EverQuest Next website with a "Welcome" post, a "Remember EverQuest" editorial, and a Producer's Letter:
When our team set out to re-design EverQuest Next, we took no prisoners. Just because a system or feature was (in every other MMO) was meaningless to us. Nothing was sacred, and everything was questioned.
The result was a game that is built on an entirely different conceptual skeleton from any other game in history, anywhere in the world. Woohoo! Grandiose statement, but read on!
We didn't just come up with a cool new graphics look (although we did) and we didn't just reboot the lore of Norrath so it's fresh and fun to explore again (although we did that, too). We tore the concepts of MMO gaming apart and reassembled them from new pieces.
Our goal: A heroic adventure game with an emphasis on being massively social.
To do that, we had to examine fundamental roots of the game. What is fun about combat? What's wrong with most virtual economies? What is the attraction of alts? What social elements work to allow players to naturally meet instead of forcing those connections? What do players want most out of a game? Yeah.the deep questions.
And eventually, we created satisfying answers for all that and more. And from those answers, we began crafting systems that would better support the things we felt that players (and ourselves) had always wanted from these games.
Then we move to our first preview at Shacknews:
On paper, EverQuest Next is shaping up to be one of the most ambitious MMOs we've ever seen. Even if SOE only executes on a fraction of its promises, it's still quite exciting. Crucially, while the high-level concept is rather staggering, early looks at the gameplay look quite fun as well. EverQuest Next employs a new movement system that lets you parkour through the environment, sliding down hills, running over obstacles. You can also glide through the air and teleport-flash across long distances, making it simply "fun to move from point A to point B."
EverQuest Next also utilizes SOEmote, but unlike in EverQuest 2, it's part of the game's core DNA. This facial tracking system lets you emote and speak in real-time as your avatar, and "really promotes role-playing." Coupled with the impressive new graphics engine, it's likely that a whole new generation of machinima will be birthed from within EverQuest Next.
Then Kotaku:
Multi-classing has appeared in various games in some shape or form, from Final Fantasy XI to The Secret World's completely class-less system. Skills derived from weapons is a Guild Wars 2 thing, as is the idea of exploring the world through physical movement gotta love jumping puzzles.
But EverQuest Next takes these ideas to new heights.
Instead of simply jumping, there's a full-on parkour system, which should give players a sense that they're running through a world instead of just walking on top of it to get to the next monster to kill. The multi-classing system allows players to mix-and-match abilities from more than 40 distinct professions, giving them freedom to play the game the way they want to play.
Moving on to GameSpot:
EverQuest Next will also feature destructible environments, which the developer claims no modern MMO game has successfully implemented so far. According to Sony, "every piece of the world" is fully destructible. The game also boasts "permanent change" as a selling point, allowing players to change the world around them in "drastic" ways.
Sony said EverQuest Next will also feature emergent artificial intelligence, which means non-player characters will have "specific motivations and preferences that direct behavior in nuanced and unpredictable ways." Lastly, Sony believes EverQuest Next will stand apart from others because each character in the gameworld will have a unique story instead of following a predetermined path.
Followed by Forbes:
EverQuest Next has been in development since 2009, but two years ago developers scrapped much of their work and started over, with the intention of leapfrogging the competition by taking the game in a new direction. The main thrust of that initiative, announced today, is that the entire world of Norrath can now be torn apart and rebuilt by players and that by playing around in the separate sandbox world of Landmark, players can design new objects, houses, towns and even cities.
In Landmark, players use some of the same building tools as SOE developers, putting them to work in huge persistent worlds that each support thousands of other players. After a player has constructed a new object whether it's small (like a castle door) or big (like the entire castle) they can share the design with other players, or simply wander the world to check out other people's creations.
Onward to PC Gamer:
Not only can matter be blown into its component bits, it can be created. (An earth wizard can raise a stone wall, so now for the monsters to reach you, they either have to break down that wall or go around it,) says Georgeson. (That's cool crowd control.)
Georgeson has only hypothetical scenarios, sharing the potential without committing to specifics. As part of a public quest, players could work together to build city walls. In a PvP scenario, one group might be defending a keep, while the other breaks down the castle walls with catapults. In a PvE scenario, players might have to destroy a giant floating island. And there's a jokingly-called (parfait) of procedurally-generated underground areas, for which archaeological lore dating back 10,000 years was written to inform, which we'll explore by digging into the surface of Norrath.
Next, we stop by Eurogamer:
But if destruction adds more realism to all of this casual violence, it's the opportunity to create that represents EverQuest Next's most intriguing ambition. A new system known as Rallying Calls - most easily likened to the public quest format that's become a staple of the modern MMO - will draw an entire server community together. Cities will need to be constructed, invasions driven out, and defences built, for example. Once completed, every construction effort remains a permanent feature of the landscape, giving players a tangible sense of impact upon the world.
Fascinating though the idea is, it remains to be seen how exactly players will be motivated to collaborate on such large-scale endeavours, stretched out over long periods of time. The city-building campaign was pitched as a two to three month project, but there will always be those who prefer to sit on the sides and let everyone else do the hard work. More worrying is the potential for low-population servers to produce suffocating and stagnant worlds. Again, it's an issue the team are aware of, and so movement between realms will be relatively easy, and the Rallying Calls themselves will scale to the population.
Before continuing to Venturebeat:
The computer-controlled characters will have (emergent artificial intelligence,) or specific motivations and preferences that will direct their behavior in nuanced and unpredictable ways. Non-player characters will make decisions based on core values. Orcs may attack opportunistically because they want an adventurer's gold, not just because a hero walks into an attack radius.
Each character will have a unique story, not a predetermined path. They will seek out adventure in a constantly changing (sandbox world.) The game will remember every choice and action that players make and it will deliver more chances to do the things that a player likes.
And, finally, Massively:
Consider this scenario: You come upon a band of orcs attacking a small settlement. You can continue on your merry way, or you can jump in and aid one side. But which one? Do you protect the humans, or do you assist the orcs? Helping the humans can open up opportunities for you to work with them in the future because they will remember your deeds and react accordingly. On the other hand, helping the orcs can be advantageous as well; it might just be that they offer you training in a class you couldn't access otherwise. (We'll get back to what "class" means in a moment!)
Next up is the big world-wide public quest. Dubbed Rallying Calls, these public quests are a bit different from what you are used to. For one, they aren't quick. These quests will develop over a few months' time. And again, choices matter here; what players do during that time will affect what happens at the next stage. Let me illustrate: A Rallying Call to build Halas starts. First, you might make a little tent settlement. But what if gnolls start attacking? Do you go hunt the gnolls, build up a wall for protection, or pick a new spot? Every action will have consequences, even if not immediate. This whole thing will develop based on what players do. When one Rallying Call finally concludes, another will roll out. Once one is done, it won't start up again with the next batch of players. In other words, when Halas is built, it stays permanently built.
