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EverQuest II

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EverQuest II, the sequel to EverQuest, is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) in development by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) for release in late 2004. It features graphics and gameplay vastly updated from its predecessor as well as NPCs that use audio for speech.

Gameplay

While the gameplay continues to focus greatly on killing creatures for experience points and loot, there have been several significant changes from the original EverQuest. One of the greatest efforts has gone into developing trade skills into a much more complex and viable character archetype.

Many gameplay choices were made in order to stop old, sometimes undesirable, tactics that emerged in EQ. The most bold addition is the concept of "locked encounters". When a player (or group) attacks a creature, the encounter becomes locked to that player. To stop kill stealing and powerleveling, other players cannot assist in the encounter unless the player who locked it uses a special "/yell" command for help, after which the encounter will reward neither loot nor experience. To stop "kiting", players lose all their movement speed enhancements. (Kiting was a tactic used in EQ that allowed players with speed enhancing spells to outrun opponents while safely attacking from a distance.)

Guilds

Everquest II, like the original EQ, will have guilds. Each guild exists only on its own server.

Like the original EQ, EverQuest II focuses on PvE (player versus environment) encounters. All player versus player combat is consensual.

Setting

EverQuest II is set in Norrath like the original, but 500 years later in the "Age of Destiny". The game world has been drastically affected by several cataclysms since the original EQ. The planes have closed, the gods have gone, and the moon Luclin has been pulverized. Remnants of the familiar vistas from EQ's Norrath can be found in the "Shattered Lands".

Players begin in a tutorial area called the "Island of Refuge" and then move to either of the towns, Qeynos (the good town) or Freeport (the evil town). All the other towns in the world were destroyed in the cataclysms. Qeynos and Freeport are much larger than they were in the original EQ and it is promised that they will play an important role in the player's experience regardless of what level they are. The playable races each have their own special section of the towns. Once a player chooses a their town, they will not be welcome in the other.

The game world is as varied as the original, featuring wide geographical and ecological variety. In EQ2, players can ride trained griffins on predetermined routes over the Shattered Lands so that they can travel more swiftly throughout much of the game world. When the gods left the world, the druid rings and wizard spires ceased functioning and thus there are no teleportation spells.

EverQuest II also includes instanced zones — copies of some zones are spawned in order to better handle player crowding.

Races and classes

All of the familiar races from EQ are playable except the Vah Shir, but SOE added the Kerra as a replacement. The new race is the Ratonga, a rat-like people of mysterious origin. Additionally, the Froglok race will be locked until a special server-wide quest is completed to make them playable.

EQ2 uses a more sophisticated hierarchical class-based system. Players start at level 1 as a commoner. At level 3, they choose one of the four archetypes: fighter, mage, priest, or scout. (Players can also advance there character in the artisan archetype in addition to their 'adventurer' archetype.) At level 10, players choose from one of the three classes available to their archetype. Finally, at level 20, they get to choose between the two sub-classes of their class.

Players will be able to customize the look of their character's face. The original EverQuest was often criticized for its "cookie-cutter characters" since there was a relatively small selection of looks available to each race.

Voices

One of the most interesting additions to the game is the use of actual voices for NPCs. The actors used for these parts included well-known Hollywood stars such as Heather Graham (as Antonia Bayle) and Christopher Lee (Lucan D'Lere).

Business

SOE is marketing EverQuest II as a "parallel universe", presumably suggesting to current EverQuest players that the original will not be cancelled on release and to others that this is a new game. Players of the old EQ can use the "heritage system" to get the family name of their EQ character and "heirloom" items for their experience.

Like the original and other commercial MMORPGs, EQ2 will require a monthly fee to play the game.

The beta NDA (non-disclosure agreement) was dropped on October 15, 2004.

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