Last week Sony Online Entertainment dropped a metric ton (we weighed it, using science) of information about their games at their annual SOE Live event in arid beautiful Las Vegas. New announcements and updates were coming left and right from the event, including new information on their “flagship” titles: EverQuest and EverQuest II.
One of the announcements was the impending implementation of a new “advanced looting feature,” designed to combat the growing problem of “ninja looting” in the game – where players take items that they may not necessarily need. Sometimes this is as simple as an overly excited player clicking “Loot All” out of habit, while others do this specifically to harass other players. It’s a pretty crappy thing to do, and with this new system, which SOE says will adapt to learn based on your initial actions. If it works as SOE intends, it’ll help players grab the gear they need while not flooding their inventory with stuff they don’t want.
But if you think a new looting system is the only thing coming to EverQuest, you would be wrong. Keep reading after the break to learn about two new expansions, as well as an update on their next EverQuest game: EverQuest Next.
EverQuest
EverQuest, the MMORPG that continues to chug along after fifteen years, is slated for its 21st Expansion: The Darkened Sea. In The Darkened Sea you will find a loving tribute to EverQuest‘s lasting presence, taking players back to familiar locations as they play through a new storyline that takes them through eight new zones, like the Tempest Temple and a The Lost World-inspired area (the HG Wells book, not the Jurassic Park sequel), the Caverns of Endless Song.
The Darkened Sea will also drop a plethora of new spells, items, and raid content. All-Access members will have the chance to start consuming this new content on October 28th, while free-to-play audiences will have to wait until November 11th, which is a Thursday, so you know… be sick on Friday.
EverQuest II
Not to be outdone by its older brother (its father? I don’t know – video game genealogy is weird), SOE also announced their eleventh expansion for EverQuest II: Altar of Malice. In this upcoming installment, you will travel to the Shabby Sea and encounter the Far Seas Trading Company. Why? Because you are there to make a deal between them and the Overlord of Freeport. Unfortunately things go terribly wrong and you must investigate what in the world happened while exploring this new area of the world.
In addition to new quests and a new zone, prestige levels will be increased to 100, Grandmasters for spells up to level 100, a new tier of spell scrolls (Rare Ancients) will be introduced, and a tradeskill apprentice will provide players with recipes to create new items. But the biggest announcement is the introduction of the Aerakyn, a brand new playable race of horned creatures that feature wings which will develop and grow with your character. The big payoff? Once you hit level 85, you’ll be able to fly!
Guilds are also seeing new items, including a level increase up to 100, and new/upgraded amenities and guiid halls.
So, when can you expect to play through Altar of Malice? Not sure. SOE gave a tentative release window of “this winter,” which could either mean late 2014 or early 2015.
EverQuest Next
So EverQuest Next was also mentioned during SOE Live, and the news on the game is that… well, they’re working on it. “We have been building EverQuest Next,” Dave Georgeson said. “We’ve been building it right in front of you for the past year: it’s called Landmark.”
Despite that, it’s important to note that Landmark is NOT EverQuest Next, but rather the foundation of what EQNext will become is being built inside of Landmark.
So you may not realize it but we’re making all the systems that we need for EverQuest Next, and they’re being built right here in Landmark.
You can sign up for Landmark‘s beta at the game’s official website, or you can jump in to the game by becoming a founder – either through their website or by picking up the game on Steam. As for Landmark, SOE announced new content will be coming later this month – including combat.
We’ll be talking about that soon enough…