Fan Faire: What's Coming Next for EverQuest?

We attended a pair of Fan Faire panels to get all the details on EverQuest's Veil of Alaris expansion and other upcoming features.

During my time at SOE Fan Faire, I attended two separate panels that answered the question, “What's coming next for EverQuest?” Both panels focused heavily on the Veil of Alaris expansion that's scheduled to launch in November, as well as some of the other features you can expect to see in-game throughout the year.

While the panels were held on separate days, they basically covered the same content. Keep reading after the jump for an overview of everything we learned at Fan Faire!

The Lore Behind the Expansion

Alan VanCouvering kicked things off with a summary of the lore surrounding the Veil of Alaris expansion. “We definitely plan to give you a bunch of the lore up front, but you'll be able to fill out the details by doing additional quests,” he said. “We have every intention of making sure all of the story gets into the game.”

Alaris is a planet on another plane. The natives are mortals who create their gods. While Norrathian gods are essences of the planes of power, gods on Alaris are Alaran citizens that have ascended to their new role. They started off as heroes and legends, and their fame ultimately gave them to power to turn them into gods and influence the people who worship them.

One day, the Discordians arrived and tried to wipe the Alarans out. Most of the planet was destroyed because the Alaran gods couldn't fight back, so the remaining gods decided to work together to escape. Some of the gods sacrificed themselves to hold back the Discordians, while others sacrificed themselves to open a portal to Norrath.

The remaining Alaran god arrived in Norrath's Age of Scale, also known as the time of the dragons. Once the dragons noticed the god's presence, the god sacrificed its power to bring up a veil and hide the continent so the dragons couldn't find it. The Alaran gods have been dead for awhile, but with enough worship they will regain their strength.

Also, just to clear up any confusion, VanCouvering explained that the Alarans are both genders and have their own pronoun. During the panels, he made sure to correct himself and say “it” whenever he was discussing the gods.

Veil of Alaris Zones

Following the lore discussion, VanCouvering showed the audience a lengthy video tour of some of the new zones that are coming in the expansion.

  • Argath, Bastion of Illdaera is where you'll be entering the expansion.
  • Beasts' Domain is a Norrathian zone filled with alien foliage.
  • The Resplendent Temple is dedicated to the Alaran god of splendor.
  • Sarith, City of Tides is built in the image of the Alaran god who arrived in Norrath.
  • Rubak Oseka is a temple of the sea built in the shape of a giant conch shell.
  • The Pillars of Alrah are dedicated to the god of magic. Alarans have four types of magic: light, dark, pure and nature. This zone has a temple for each one.
  • The Sepulcher of Order is a zone for all the gods. It's full of temples that act as resting places for the fallen gods.

More upcoming features outlined on Page 2.

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Comments

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Faction
# Sep 28 2011 at 3:39 PM Rating: Decent
I'd like to have a way to see what my faction is beside conning some mob or NPC. Something like /key to check what you are keyed to.
class
# Aug 23 2011 at 5:13 PM Rating: Decent
develope a new class that will get people interested and numbers increase.
TradeSkills
# Aug 09 2011 at 11:09 AM Rating: Decent
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when is SOE raising the trade-skill level cap?? last i seen it still stuck at 300 and there is items to make that trivial at 500. Does that make any sense??
AAs and creativity
# Jul 18 2011 at 5:09 PM Rating: Decent
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Moonlight55 wrote:
They added AA's so people won't just race to the max level. It was extremely creative; it allowed players to customize their toon and fine tune it. They came out with the Luclin expansion in 2001.

That’s ten year ago...it is time for the EQ Dev’s to come up with something equally creative. They added the PoK, quick travel, no death penality, GL/GH, Hot zones, etc. etc. This didn't do anything for the toon other than allow unhead of speeds in power leveling.

Something that will bring what remains of the player base more together instead of making it one huge FPS by spreading the player base even thinner and just slapping another five levels on. And with the latest “changes” it seems as if they are resigned to just churn out more of the standard fare. They want NEW players…time for something game changing for the Dev team to come up with.
It looks like you're learning to articulate properly. The way you structured your original vague, cryptic complaint, it only applied to the addition of levels. I'll repost it:

Moonlight55 wrote:
•The level cap will be raised by 5 to level 95.
Yawn. Glad to see they are as creative as ever...


You weren't very comprehensive or clear.

Now that you're being at least a little clear, I will say that the ONLY reason the AA system was created was to extend the game-play experience, enticing players to keep giving their money to Sony. That's the ONLY reason, despite any idealistic philanthropic fantasies you may have.

Perhaps you did not major in economics, but I think even you can understand the fundamental economic principle of "profit." On a very simple level, the greatest, most efficient profit is realized by bringing in the most amount of money (income) for the least amount of effort and expenditure of resources. Surely Sony has economists on its staff who realize that. That is why they created AAs and that is why they haven't created something like AAs since. They don't feel the need to. They couldn't care less what one person (you) or even a small group of people think about their creativity; if they don't see a need to "be creative" to increase their profit, they're not going to waste resources doing so. They're creative enough to dupe you into continuously giving them money even though you think they're not very creative. That takes creativity! There is no economic incentive to be creative if you will continue to give them money even when, according to you, they're not being very creative.

And I guarantee you that Sony has many members on its payroll with more creativity in one fingernail than you or I would have if we lived 10,000 lifetimes. Saying they aren't creative is a bit ignorant, IMHO. They're creative enough to convince you to keep giving them your money (for 10 years!) even though you don't think they are very creative!





Edited, Jul 18th 2011 6:13pm by Philliden
TBS
# Jul 18 2011 at 7:38 AM Rating: Decent
7 zones, sounds like TBS "Total ******** Expansion" all over again.
Complaint about level increase
# Jul 16 2011 at 3:34 PM Rating: Decent
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Moonlight55 wrote:
•The level cap will be raised by 5 to level 95.
Yawn. Glad to see they are as creative as ever...

How creative can you get with a level increase? It's binary: either you increase the level cap or you don't. What, adding 7 levels this time is creative? "Oh look, they've added 7 levels this time. That is soooooo creative!!!!1!!1!" Adding levels is more creative than not adding levels. I bet if someone gave you $100, you'd complain because it wasn't $200.






Edited, Jul 16th 2011 4:40pm by Philliden
Complaint about level increase
# Jul 17 2011 at 10:50 AM Rating: Decent
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94 posts
Do you know why AA's were invented within EQ?

Right....

There are different ways to progress instead of slapping on another 5 levels. But I guess anything than a simple goal of "Just grind levels" is too complex for you.

Wait...when did SOE introduce the AA system.

Exactly.

Time for them to get a tad more creative.


Complaint about level increase
# Aug 23 2011 at 6:04 AM Rating: Decent
Moonlight55 wrote:

Time for them to get a tad more creative.


Such as? Since this is a big complaint for you, feel free to share all your great ideas.
Complaint about level increase
# Jul 18 2011 at 3:12 AM Rating: Decent
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199 posts
Huh? They're adding AAs too. Your logic is very confusing.
Complaint about level increase
# Jul 18 2011 at 2:11 PM Rating: Decent
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94 posts
Really? They’re adding AA too?
OMG....did you miss Why and When part?

So What do tigers dream of when they take their little tiger snooze?

They added AA's so people won't just race to the max level. It was extremely creative; it allowed players to customize their toon and fine tune it. They came out with the Luclin expansion in 2001.

That’s ten year ago...it is time for the EQ Dev’s to come up with something equally creative. They added the PoK, quick travel, no death penality, GL/GH, Hot zones, etc. etc. This didn't do anything for the toon other than allow unhead of speeds in power leveling.

Something that will bring what remains of the player base more together instead of making it one huge FPS by spreading the player base even thinner and just slapping another five levels on. And with the latest “changes” it seems as if they are resigned to just churn out more of the standard fare. They want NEW players…time for something game changing for the Dev team to come up with.
response to
# Jul 15 2011 at 11:15 PM Rating: Good
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Iakar
Quote:
Quoted Do you know for now having 2 fking mecr's now, now its going to get groups w/ other ppl very very hard to get in now...... Thanks SoE. I can now solo alot more now,i just love how SoE turning EQ into a one person game. HMMMM i think in a few more yrs we can get can get another 2 merc' and fk the grouping w/ ppl now.
Must be great going through life and not being able to read correctly.
from page 2 this artical
Quote:
Quoted •They're going to allow you to have more than one mercenary, but you can only play one at any given time. There will be a delay in reuse and recast times, but this will give you more flexibility. You will have access to a high amount of mercenaries. This feature isn't tied to the expansion, but it should launch around that time.
Can only play ONE, Uno, 1 at a time.
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why
# Jul 15 2011 at 5:16 PM Rating: Decent
Do you know for now having 2 fking mecr's now, now its going to get groups w/ other ppl very very hard to get in now...... Thanks SoE. I can now solo alot more now,i just love how SoE turning EQ into a one person game. HMMMM i think in a few more yrs we can get can get another 2 merc' and fk the grouping w/ ppl now.
why
# Jul 15 2011 at 8:37 PM Rating: Decent
34 posts
What the hell are you trying to say? OH btw you have entirely missed the whole statement about having multiple mercs. you can NOT have 2 out at the same time... This means if you get into a group with a hole bunch of healing mercs you can say oh hey ill switch to my damage merc yay!!!

PS Grammar is a wonderful invention. Give it a try.
why
# Jul 25 2011 at 6:13 AM Rating: Decent
Lol! Smiley: lol You should use the grammar correction tool yourself before you jump on someone else about theirs. haha
why
# Jul 15 2011 at 5:37 PM Rating: Default
Play RIFT and get some quest, the moment you come close to somebody else with the same or similiare quest you get invited to public groups, click it and you in a group. Its thats simple. or you can chat about how wonderfull to would be to be in a group.
why
# Jul 15 2011 at 11:03 PM Rating: Good
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94 posts
Played Rift...

Good Gawd that was a stupid game. click, click, click.

I was trying to think of one thing I really enjoyed about Rift.

Hmmmmm...

Characters were ok...generation sucked, progression..stupid.

Rift thing that gets ppl together was cool...for a day or two, then it became annoying.

Well...the toons were ok.
Good and Bad
# Jul 15 2011 at 12:35 PM Rating: Decent
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94 posts
•The level cap will be raised by 5 to level 95.
Yawn. Glad to see they are as creative as ever...

•The hotbar system is getting a revamp
Yes! Outstanding! Now when can we remove the SC button!!!!

•Cooldown timers will be visible when you click something on your bar.
This is a good feature.

•There will be two new guild halls
So that will be 3 guild halls and housing. Way to go Dev Team...split up the masses even more. Good luck ppl on those free buffs outside the guild hall. Hell, that wa

•This means you'll be able to cast from your hotbar without opening up your inventory
Hey Look...I'm playing WoW. Can they dumb down it even more?

•Offline brokering is coming...
trading has gone from nostalgic, to better, to super easy and finally...to just f**king stupid. This is everquest...you know, swords and ****...not Star Wars/Trek. I really am playing WoW now.

•They're going to allow you to have more than one mercenary
Smart move considering they are Hired. However, to be able to travel 5 zones and "pop" out a Merc is still a bit stupid. There should be a tavern or some place inside or near cities (but not all cities) where additional Mercs "hang out" to be hired and have it not be with you at a moment's notice. Make it more immersive and not just a freakin button click. Jeeze..haggle with the merc on his rates...something...anything. If you want to hire seedy evil toons like rogues or caster travel to an watering hole in the seedy part of town and hire one...hell, get into a fight inside the tavern...kill a merc in order to hire a merc. Need a good Healer...travel to GF or somewhere. Travel is easy now...use it. Hell, make getting addition merc's a quest...a easy quest, not somee 30 part epic quest...but something. It's called immersion...it is what made EQ great.

•They're adding a new parcel delivery and money system.

What?

•Recruit-a-Friend and Fellowship experience
Really...who are they kidding? The only "recruits" are the multi-boxer adding another toon account, as less than 1% are new players to the game. And most new players leave due to the massive complexity of a 12 year old game (which I like but offers nothing to bring people together)...and go to something easy like WoW or even super easy like Rift where you have NTI (no thinking involved).

My Fav for last...
•Bigger bags should be coming back to the marketplace in the next couple months. They will also be added as drops in the game, but not as tradeskill items.

And here is a nice big FU to SOE...FU
No really.....FU SOE. Bigger bags for sale for RL money in the Marketplace...BUT NOT IN GAME.
But in addition to buying it from SOE OUT OF GAME SYSTEM, they will also drop in game. OK...but will be Raid Drops and then we'll see them for sale for 500K to 1M pp by traders....Because, it is Not a tradeskill item? WTF? Can't wait or don't have the plat..>NO Worries, you can buy them (like the 32 slot 100%WR bag) in the Marketplace...for real life money. Not in game.... FU SOE

But yes...I know all you little marketplace creepies have no issue with this.
Good and Bad
# Jul 17 2011 at 3:12 AM Rating: Default
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147 posts
This is about the most accurate summation of the entire issue. The level cap is a joke.
Wonder...
# Jul 14 2011 at 6:19 PM Rating: Default
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85 posts
What the graphic changes will be like, will there be a performance increase in the over all game play with these improvements? Essentially memory utilization and what about better x64bit support?
new class
# Jul 14 2011 at 12:30 PM Rating: Default
i would like to see a new class
Summary
# Jul 14 2011 at 5:52 AM Rating: Decent
Great summary. Thanks.
Sweet
# Jul 14 2011 at 4:24 AM Rating: Good
Nice I like the ideal of 2 mercenaries per character. And leveling to 95. I use veiwport and I have a 24inch monitor
so I use the default UI so more hot-bars and re-sizing will help out allot. EQ is the best game for me I like it alot and still have fun with the game:) Long live EQ.
Nice standard UI improvements.
# Jul 13 2011 at 9:03 PM Rating: Good
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610 posts
Can't wait for the hotbar increases plus resizing options for standard ui users.
That and having the added versatility of owning 2 different classes of mercenaries per character will make me preorder the expansion.

I Hope the expansion has enough worthwhile/challenging content to keep people of all playstyles happy for the year ahead.
Cool
# Jul 13 2011 at 3:57 PM Rating: Decent
very cool, looking forward to this
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