Goals, voxels and more were discussed during the 2013 Landmark panel.

Here are our takeaways from attending the SOE Live 2013 EverQuest Next Landmark panel!

Creating a World

• Use core principals from the EverQuest franchise
• Bring a product that can't be found anywhere else
• Landmark is intended to appeal to players who want to interact with the world
• Longevity is important
• Kicks off the integration of content for EQ Next
• You're in "Our" World Now - creating a world together and Landmark is the beginning of this
• Building upon a completely constructable and destructible world
• Break the mold by going back to the roots of a game like Dungeons & Dragons, where everyone is part of the game and has fun

• Tiers of content and the game must be fun
• Destructible and constructable world (dynamic)
• Constructable world: modular world using LEGO sets as an example
• Construction goals: blocks, props, materials
• Use a geometric style in the world (supports underlying tech for game and allows the world to embrace its look)
• Materials needed to look natural and realistic; created a library of shapes
• "Iksar area" mentioned when talking about the world
• Halas mentioned when talking about the world
• Everyone from the team was able to contribute to building the world
• The devs hope to see the same inspiration put into building on Landmark
• Focused on making an organic terrain with voxels

• Voxels in the new engine are very small
• Data is stored for each voxel: its location, material, and contouring information in regards to smoothing (and "other stuff")
• Huge world + tiny voxels = LOTS of voxels = HUGE data problem!
• To solve the data issue they created a "procedurally generated world"...
• This uses "noise algorithms and textures" to generate the base terrain so it is not stored as data
• The procedural state allows the team to customize with voxels (custom voxels use data storage)
• They can heal the terrain, so that voxel data is removed and reverted back to the original
• "Mesh generation" that generates meshes with voxel data, which is actually what's rendered; also allows for smoothing and blending
• "Really awesome landscapes" are achieved by the level of detail generating lower resolution meshes as it is moved and "blended" further in the clipping plane
• Physics of destuction: devs have tools that allow them to evaluate the physics behind destroying the terrain

• Talking about how harvesting is different due to a destructible world...
• The world is made out of resources
• Natural resources are where you would expect to find them; "you find copper where you think copper might be"; rocks on mountains, wood in forests, "dirt can be found pretty much everywhere"
• Harvesting temporarily destructs that bit of world; the world heals and the resources may move a bit
• There will still be some game-specific nodes found via exploration.. example given is maybe some mithril will be in snowcapped mountains
• There's not only surface harvesting, but also harvesting deep within the world
• Tools: expect basic harvesting tools but also some specialized ones (not elaborated on yet)
• Harvesting encourages exploration
• Everyone is a crafter in Landmark! "On the frontier everyone needs skills to survive."
• System will be "easy to use and accessible" but there will still be things for "the hardcore guy"
• Players will create most of the items
• You can harvest items not just to collect and use them, but also because they're made of resources, so they themselves can be harvested if desired

• You can build outside of your plot for navigation purposes; this area can heal and revert to its natural state
• Limited tools to use when building outside your plot
• Any building within your plot is permanent; can "store your treasures"
• "Really powerful tools" for building inside your plot; same tools as devs
• Tools: should be obvious what it does, have consistent behavior and feel natural to use
• Tools: related functions are grouped together
• These tools remove the tedium of making small changes to your build
• Go above and beyond other games with features sure as smoothing and copy & paste
• Fun to use - it's still a game!
• Keep things looking like it belongs in the world
• Things are moved around with animations, sounds, particle effects - but these are intended to not be overwhelming

Q: Inventory space, how to organize?
A: Expect decent size inventory, can also store some stuff in your claim (plot)

Q: Can I dig under and collapse someone's plot?
A: They want the game interesting and intuitive but there will be some limitations. We don't know for certain right now.

Q: Will system requirements be similar to Planetside 2?
A: Too early to talk about minimum specs, but trying to get it running as fast as possible on many types of machines.

Q: How do you keep the world from "not looking like the surface of the moon" after 20+ people are harvesting in an area?
A: World healing should feel natural; current limit is five minutes
A: The world won't end up looking like swiss cheese, will discuss more later

Q: Mine resources from player-made objects?
A: Not talking about PvP right now
A: There will be "an extremely robust permission system" so you can control in Landmark what you want other people to do with you creations

Q: Any risks while harvesting?
A: Not talking about death currently but yes, there's risks (example given: lava is dangerous!)
A: Some items might circumvent dangers

Q: Best way for me to satisfy that person's need to grief others?
A: Will try to give players a way to PROTECT against griefing

Q: Scaling up/down, would it cost more resources... can you scale up and down?
A: Yes you can scale; building something larger would likely cost more resources
A: Two systems being discussed here... building with voxels: you can do some scaling with voxels and that will cost more resources since each voxel costs a resource; props: creation of a prop costs a set amount of resources

Q: How big can we expect EverQuest Next to be?
A: "The biggest."
A: "Very large."
A: Limits haven't been defined or reached yet; there are technical limits but they haven't reached those yet
A: More hardware and processes should scale the world larger and larger; not testing how big it can get yet

Q: Do voxel materials have a mass or hardiness? Wall of stone harder to blow up than a wall of dirt? Will it sound different
A: Plan to have audio attached to materials...
A: .. and different physical strengths.
A: Hardier materials can make it easier to harvest lower tier things

Q: Craft or create props that allow more efficient movement?
A: Sounds like fun but too early to say!

Ann "Cyliena" Hosler, Senior Content Manager